Probably anyone who reads this blog has enough E-Rate Geek Factor that this is old news, but the application filing window for 2010-2011 opened today at noon EST. Here's the official announcement.
The window closes February 11. USAC says that's 71 days, I say 70.5, but in any case, it's enough.
What is scandalous is this:
In the Third Report and Order, the FCC created a laudable rule of allowing at least 60 days between the release of the Eligible Services List (ESL) and the opening of the window. That makes a lot of sense: how can districts adjust their tech plans and craft a Form 470 without knowing what is eligible. Ever since then, the FCC has waived the rule, and given us less (much less) time.
But this year takes the cake. The FCC released the ESL last night, and the window opened today at noon. Instead of 60 days, we got about 18 hours.
Maybe this is the last year we'll be faced with this problem. Along with the ESL, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which would require USAC to submit the proposed ESL to the FCC three months earlier each year, with the goal of moving the release of the ESL back to September, where it's supposed to be. I'm all for that.
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