Casey urges FCC to keep funding websites in schools
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey is urging the Federal Communications Commission to keep funding website hosting in less-affluent school districts, including four in Washington County, as the agency tweaks the program.
Casey, D-Pa., asked FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler to keep funding in place in the federal E-Rate Program, where it has proven effective, as the agency proposes to reallocate money to improve Internet bandwidth and access to the web.
“Without E-Rate support for Web hosting, districts might have to make cuts in other areas of their already-strained budgets to find the means to pay for the service,” Casey stated in the letter he sent to Wheeler, which was included in a Monday news release.
The E-Rate Program was established with $2.25 billion to improve telecommunications access at schools and libraries when some of them still used dial-up connections to access the Internet, said Kristen Van Strien at Intermediate Unit 1 in California.
The school districts were able to use the reimbursements collected in consumer telephone bills to help pay for their phone bills and Internet access, and to pay companies that host their websites, she said.
The distribution of the funding is based on the number of students districts have enrolled in their free or reduced-price lunch programs.
In Washington County, the districts that receive the money are Burgettstown Area, California Area, Fort Cherry and Bentworth.
California business manager Julie Mascia said her district receives $25,000 a year under the program, a sum that nearly equals 1 mill of tax revenue.
Casey said the districts have found the program helps them teach better and provide critical information to parents and students.
“The FCC shouldn’t increase the burden that these school district have,” Casey said, adding some of them already struggle with strained budgets.