Today’s Washington Post reports on the success so far of the so-called E-Rate program, which funded by a “Universal Service Fee” that shows up on your telephone bill and mine, and which is supposedly desigened to help schools and libraries link to the Internet.
A federal program that has doled out more than $10 billion to help schools and libraries link to the Internet has wasted millions of dollars over its nine-year history, according to a congressional report.
The E-Rate program, managed by the Federal Communications Commission, is poorly run and “extremely vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse,” said the report, approved last week by an 11 to 0 vote of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s oversight subcommittee.
Federal tax money being wasted. What a shock. Meanwhile, what about all the computers that have been donated to poor and inner city school systems by companies like Microsoft ? I suspect that they have done more to get these schools connected and up-to-date technologically than E-Rate program has, without all the waste and abuse.
For instance, FCC standards for excluding unscrupulous vendors are too low, requiring a civil judgment or criminal conviction before the vendor can be suspended, the report said. Also, ineffective oversight has given rise to forged documents and program applications as some local officials and vendors have attempted to defraud the program.
Ah, yes, corruption. The hallmark of any well run government program. Is it any surprise that local officials are pocketing the money for themselves when it is so easily available ?
And what does this report recommend be done ? More regulation, of course.
The report recommends that Congress consider whether the FCC should continue to manage the program, whether the money should continue to be disbursed by a nonprofit, nongovernmental entity, and whether the program is spending too much money. Rep. Edward Whitfield (R-Ky.), the subcommittee chairman, agreed, saying that these “weaknesses must be addressed legislatively.”
Why not just get rid of the program altogether ?
Remember this the next time you pay your phone bill.
