The Schools and Libraries Division has released another 1,300 funding commitment letters for the E-rate program's second year, this time distributing $48 million.
Through the first six waves of letters, the SLD has distributed commitments worth $429 million, or about 19 percent of the $2.25 billion it has available to commit. The volume of commitments dropped some from the previous two weeks, amounting to less than half of the dollar amount of last week's wave and just over a third of the amount committed two weeks ago. The decrease may reflect stepped-up integrity reviews as the SLD auditing staff tackles larger applications, and the difficulty of resolving outstanding issues while key contacts are on summer vacation.
At the pace it has achieved so far, it would take the SLD roughly five months to commit all of the funds it has available. Sources have indicated that the SLD has been trying to process at least $100 million in commitments every week.
