The Federal Communications Commission announced today the release of the Federal-State Universal Service Board’s Monitoring Report on Universal Service. This report provides general information about the telephone industry that has been reported to the Federal Communications Commission through June of 2008. A portion of this report covers the Schools and Libraries Support program, known to most as the E-rate program.
The report shows that $1.8 billion in E-rate funding was disbursed during the calendar year 2007, which is a $100 million increase over 2006. Every year, the Universal Service Joint Board releases within monitoring report that is, “… a compendium of hundreds of pages of statistical data on subscribership and penetration, loop costs, separations factors, universal service fund payments, etc.”
The report calculates that for Funding Year 2006, just over $40 per student was committed in E-rate funds nationwide. Of the amount committed, just $28 was actually used when calculated on a nationwide, per-student basis. Alaska had the greatest funds disbursed per student in any state at $123 each, while Delaware received the fewest dollars per student in any state at nearly $6 per student in disbursements. The territories of the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico bookend the disbursement list with $201 and $3 per student, respectively.
The complete report, which is over 600 pages long, can be obtained through the FCC’s website. You can download the section of the report pertaining to the E-rate program from Funds For Learning at the following link: Section of monitoring report pertaining to the E-rate program.
