Freedom is the open window

In case you hadn't heard, the filing window for FY 2016-2017 has been set: February 3rd to April 29th.

Here's my annual spreadsheet of window history:

FY	ESL release	Window announced	Days to announce	Window open	60 days?	Window close	Window days
2005	10/14/2004	11/5/2004	22	12/14/2004	61	2/17/2005	65
2006	11/22/2005	11/23/2005	1	12/6/2005	14	2/16/2006	72
2007	10/19/2006	10/20/2006	1	11/14/2006	26	2/7/2007	85
2008	10/19/2007	10/28/2007	9	11/7/2007	19	2/7/2008	92
2009	11/21/2008	11/24/2008	3	12/2/2008	11	2/12/2009	72
2010	12/2/2009	12/3/2009	1	12/3/2009	1	2/11/2010	70
2011	12/6/2010	12/10/2010	4	1/11/2011	36	3/24/2011	72
2012	9/28/2011	11/22/2011	55	1/9/2012	103	3/20/2012	71
2013	9/27/2012	11/13/2012	47	12/12/2012	76	3/14/2013	92
2014	10/22/2013	11/20/2013	29	1/9/2014	79	3/26/2014	76
2015	10/28/2014	12/19/2014	52	1/14/2015	78	3/26/2015	71
2016	9/11/2015	1/25/2016	136	2/3/2016	145	4/29/2016	86

It's a whole new ballgame!  Other than the date the ESL was released and the length of the window, everything is unprecedented.

My dream of a compressed PIA review period is coming true.

Just like last year, you can complete and pay for Category 2 purchases before you file the Form 471 for those purchases, since the filing window closes after the April 1 start date for C2 installation.

Eligible vs. fundable

Here's the sort of thing I think about in the shower:

So let's say you're a district with a 40% discount looking for a VoIP/Internet bundle for FY 2016-2017.  Well, next year 40% schools will have stepped down to 0% for voice, so you're only getting funding for the Internet portion.  When you create your evaluation, only the price of the Internet should be considered in the most-heavily-weighted Price criterion, right?

Not so fast.  The rule says that "you must include the price of the eligible products and services as a factor and that factor must be weighted more heavily than any other single factor."  Well, voice is an eligible service.  Yes, your discount for that service is 0%, but that doesn't make it ineligible.  "Not funded" is not the same as "not eligible."

So even though you won't get funding for the voice, don't you have to include the cost of voice in the price of eligible services?

That's good news for applicants, since it lets you choose the overall cheapest option.  And if you get 2 bids, both for $1,000, but one of them says it's $500 Internet+$500 voice and the other says $800 Internet+$200 voice, you can choose the latter, which gets you an extra $120/month in funding.