WASHINGTON-A Federal Communications Commission official today defended a $2.5 billion government program that subsidizes Internet connections for schools and libraries, but conceded there is room for improvement.
“There has been some bad actors involved in the program,” William Maher, chief of the FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau, told reporters this morning.
The agency is conducting an inquiry that could lead to policy reforms. The FCC’s inspector general is largely credited with bringing attention to problems associated with the educational, or E-rate, program. A handful of people have been charged by the Justice Department with illegalities-including bid rigging-in the E-rate scandal. NEC has been fined. Congress is conducting its own investigation.
“We will do everything we can to eradicate waste, fraud and abuse [in E-rate],” said Maher.
However, Maher pointed out that E-rate, included in the 1996 telecom act, has spurred increased broadband access in schools across the country.
