This doesn't look good. In a press release and a blog post, Chairman Carr talked about an upcoming notice of proposed rulemaking and further notice taking a "top-to-bottom review" of the E-Rate program, and some of the options they'll consider are frightful.
First, they're going to look at the E-Rate through the lens of excessive screen time. I was afraid that the Congressional USF Working Group might take this approach, but the FCC seems to be jumping on it now. Yes, excessive screen time can be bad, but the E-Rate doesn't fund screen time, it funds filtered Internet access, which is not a problem. If screen time is a problem for education, let's have professional educators fix it, not some lawyers at the FCC.
Second, they're going to look at "whether the FCC’s current interpretation of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is the best reading." If they were going to relax CIPA requirements, I'd be OK with that, but I don't think that's the direction they'll be going.
Third, they're going to consider "actions to further strengthen E-Rate program integrity...." Oh, brother. I'm all for strengthening program integrity, but every time they try, it just adds complexity to the program. I shouldn't complain, because every time they increase complexity, more applicants are driven into the arms of consultants.
Uh oh. The only action to strengthen integrity actually mentioned is "increasing oversight over consultants." I don't mind a little oversight, but I can't think of any really productive measures that can be taken, so I'm afraid we'll just get more bureaucratic tasks. I'll try to keep a wait-and-see attitude, but I have a bad feeling....
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