On June 26, 2013, FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel spoke at the ISTE Conference in San Antonio and stated that the FCC is working on releasing a formal Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) by the end of this summer to reform the E-rate program. The high level reforms Commissioner Rosenworcel would like the FCC to quickly adopt are as follows:
- The FCC should raise the funding cap;
- The E-rate program should have clear capacity goals;
- The FCC should encourage public and private partnerships for companies to develop more cost effective technologies;
- The FCC should continue to find ways to streamline the application process and consider multi-year applications;
- The FCC should encourage broadband adoption at the home and study the effectiveness of school hot spots.
FCC Commissioner Rosenworcel first provided specifics on her ideas for E-rate reform at the Washington Education Technology Summit in April 2013.
