E-rate compliance
E-rate compliance
The e-rate programme remains in the budget according to Bush's proposal. However, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ruled on 5 April that e-rate recipients must comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA)in year four of the programme, which begins 1 July. According to the regulations, "schools and libraries for which entities knowingly fail to submit certifications pursuant to CIPA are not eligible for discount services". Furthermore, recipients who fail to comply will be required to reimburse funds they receive for the period during which they were out of compliance.
Because schools and libraries have already submitted funding requests for year four, ALA and others argue that implementation should begin with year five. Not only are libraries required to provide public terminals with filters to qualify for e-rate funding, but also "CIPA makes no distinction between computers used only by staff and those accessible to the public". The FCC dismissed legal challenges with the observation that "administrative agencies are to presume that the statutes that Congress directs them to implement are constitutional".
ALA is extremely critical of the FCC's stance because, according to Emily Sheketoff, executive director of the Washington Office, "it will force libraries in economically disadvantaged urban and rural areas to use their already scarce resources to install expensive and unreliable filtering software– or be stripped of important financial assistance". http://www.ala.org/alonline/news/2001/010409.html#topand http://www.libraryjournal.com/articles/news/thisweek/20010416_18406.asp
Eileen Fitzsimons5464 S. Cornell 3FS, Chicago, Illinois 60615efitzsimons@worldnet.att.net
