Bulletins

WASHINGTON — A former owner of two Illinois-based technology companies was sentenced today to serve 30 months in prison for her participation in a conspiracy to defraud the federal E-Rate program, the Department of Justice announced. Gloria Harper was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Carl J. Barbier.

The FCC/DOE’s Digital Learning Collaborative, of which E-Rate Central is a member, releases the “Digital Textbook Playbook” designed to help educators tackle the major barriers to the adoption of e-textbooks.

Request for Review of a Decision by the Schools and Libraries Division from the State E-Rate Coordinators Alliance

Connect America Fund & Intercarrier Compensation Reform Order and FNPRM Executive Summary.

Proposal would help bring consumer benefits of broadband to 18 million Americans who are currently denied access to full economic and social participation; Unleashing opportunity, innovation, and job creation for all Americans.

Consultant Stole Funds Intended For Schools Under Federal E-rate Program.

CHANDLER, Ariz. — Amy Furman, a seventh-grade English teacher here, roams among 31 students sitting at their desks or in clumps on the floor. They’re studying Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” — but not in any traditional way.

Ex Parte Filing in: Schools and Libraries Universal Service Support Mechanism, CC Docket No. 02-6 A National Broadband Plan For Our Future, GN Docket No. 09-51

The Eligible Services List (ESL) indicates whether specific products or services may be able to receive discounts under the Schools and Libraries Universal Service Support Mechanism (otherwise known as the E-rate program or "E-rate"). The ESL is organized into five sections that represent the five funding categories established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), plus a Miscellaneous section.

With K12, the largest U.S. operator of taxpayer-funded online schools, the former junk-bond king has figured out how to make money in education. Is that a good thing?

DAVENPORT — A former Clinton School District employee pleaded guilty today to stealing money from the district.

WASHINGTON – A former owner of an Illinois-based technology company has pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to defraud the federal E-Rate program, the Department of Justice announced today. Tyrone Pipkin was originally charged in U.S. District Court in New Orleans on Nov. 18, 2010, for his role in the conspiracy to defraud the E-Rate program.

EAST BURKE, Vt. – Up in rural northern Vermont, it took until the 1960s to run power lines to some towns — decades after the rest of America got turned on.

Flush from the Supreme Court's expansive reading (pdf) last term of corporate personhood in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission to include the First Amendment right to contribute to federal elections, and free from even the fairly modest restrictions in the McCain-Feingold campaign-financing law, corporations are now seeking to expand their rights of personhood to include the right to privacy.

This year is widely seen as a breakthrough year for e-books in general, and a precursor of a similar development in the education community. The growing use of e-textbooks at the university level is now reaching down into the K-12 schools in terms of e-textbook availability, related online resources, and importantly, curriculum integration.

Tel/Logic Inc., d.b.a. E-Rate Central, submits these Reply Comments in response to the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking released December 7, 2010, designated FCC 10-192, seeking comment on prospective changes to the CORES Registration System.

WASHINGTON – The United States has settled two whistleblower lawsuits for $16.25 million alleging that Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) violated the competitive bidding rules of the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) E-Rate Program at the Dallas and Houston Independent School Districts in connection with technology services contracts with those school districts. At the same time, the United States announced that it was intervening in those same lawsuits against HP’s former business partners, Micro Systems Engineering (MSE) and Analytical Computer Services (ACS), as well as against several individuals.

WASHINGTON – The U.S. still faces a significant gap in residential broadband use that breaks down along incomes, education levels and other socio-economic factors, even as subscriptions among American households overall grew sevenfold from 2001 to 2009.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Sept. 23 voted to upgrade and modernize the federal $2.25 billion-a-year e-Rate program by allowing schools to make e-Rate funded, internet-enabled computers available to the community after normal school operating hours—a step that supporters and stakeholders say will help students and community members build important digital literacy skills.

E-rate and the National Broadband Plan presented at The New Mexico Summer Institute on July 14, 2010.