The federal program that helps link schools and libraries to the Internet has resumed spending after a cash-flow crunch that delayed more than $400 million in projects.
The E-Rate program has ended a four-month moratorium on new projects, federal officials said Tuesday, but it will take time to clear a backlog of more than 4,000 requests, which includes the Lawrence school district.
The $2.25 billion-a-year program is credited with getting high-speed Internet access to people in poor and remote locations through discounts on connection gear and phone service.
But in a push to improve financial oversight of the program, the Federal Communications Commission has ordered E-Rate to have enough cash to cover any commitments -- even if the bills for those projects won't come due for many months. That accounting change forced E-Rate in August to halt new spending until it could raise enough upfront cash, which it has done.
The first batch of 194 new commitment letters, worth $24.2 million, went to schools and libraries Monday. Those relate to applications dating to 2003 and earlier. Another group of projects, from 2004 requests, is expected to be approved by the end of the month.
The Lawrence school district, which receives some funding through E-Rate, wasn't in the first batch of commitment letters. But Mike Eltschinger, director of information technology for Lawrence public schools, assumes the district will receive a commitment letter.
The district should receive about $133,720 from E-Rate to cover some leasing costs from Sunflower Broadband, long distance fees and phone services.
But while other school districts are feeling a pinch from delayed E-Rate funding, the Lawrence district budgeted the amount that would need to be paid.
"We make the assumption that we're going to get the funding," Eltschinger said. "But if something like this happens, we still have to pay the bills."
Mel Blackwell, spokesman for the Universal Service Administrative Co., which administers the funds, said it would take longer to get things done because the organization had to work on the month-by-month basis.
The more than 4,000 applications for funding that have been delayed since August amount to more than $400 million, Blackwell said.
The impact of the spending freeze has varied by community, but schools nationwide have come to count on the E-Rate subsidies.
School districts say that because of the money they save on technology expenses, they have more cash for other critical costs, such as teacher salaries.
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