E-rate funding commitments for schools and libraries have reached $2 billion for funding year 2018. USAC reached this milestone on December 7, 2018. This was a two week improvement over last year, in which USAC reached the $2 billion mark on December 22, 2017. The chart below illustrates the path to $2 billion in funding commitments for the past five funding years. The fastest was funding year 2015, the last year before the EPC system was implemented.
![](https://www.fundsforlearning.com/docs/2018/12/Path%20to%20$2%20Billion%20Commitments.png)
As of December 7, 2018, there were 21,005 applicants who had been awarded discounts for the current funding year. Leading the pack were 11,788 school districts who were awarded a combined total of $1,519,690,303. This represents 74% of the funds requested by schools and libraries.
The consortium-type of applicant is the group with the largest amount of funding still pending. There are 63 consortia with applications totaling $256,776,103 that are still under review. This corresponds to 44% of the consortium requests. The majority of this funding is for state and regional networks.
![](https://www.fundsforlearning.com/docs/2018/12/FY2018%20Funding%20Commitments%20120718.png)