Cybersecurity reply comments to DA 22‑1315, due last week, all strongly supported the need to make advanced firewalls and other network security services eligible for E-rate funding under Category 2. Many of the reply comments, including numerous express comments, supported the initial comments filed by the Consortium for School Networking (“CoSN”) and other major educational organizations that urged the FCC to:
- Make advanced or next generation firewalls and related features eligible for E-rate Category 2 support beginning in FY 2024.
- Increase Category 2 funding levels, within the E-rate program’s existing aggregate cap, to cover modern firewalls.
- Provide this limited E-rate cybersecurity support in a manner that is minimally burdensome to applicants and permits schools and libraries to select the modern firewall technology most aligned to their needs.
Most impressive was a coalition letter coordinated by the Los Angeles Unified School District (“LAUSD”) and cosigned by over 350 school districts and other educational institutions asking the FCC “to take immediate action to protect our nation’s educational entities from cyberattacks by updating the definition of firewalls supported by E-Rate Category Two.” The LAUSD coalition also asked for a “modest increase to the Category Two budget allocation [to] benefit all school and library program participants by increasing local decision-making over the use of these important and much-needed dollars and allow for the use of E-Rate funds to bolster and maintain their IT security infrastructure.”
A call for increased funding for Category 2 within the current 5-year budget cycle was a common theme in the reply comments. The SHLB Coalition, for example, called for a 10% increase. In a more detailed analysis, reflecting recent and projected inflation, the New York State E-Rate Applicants argued that 5-year budgets should reflect real or projected inflation over the term of the cycle. It noted that the current $167 per student cap had been set in FY 2021 based on a 2.1% inflation adjustment from FY 2020. Using actual E-rate cap inflation factors for FY 2022 and FY 2023, and modest estimates of inflation for the following two years, the New York State E‑Rate Applicants proposed a mid-cycle correction of Category 2 budget factors to $200 per student for schools, $5.50 per square foot for libraries, and a $30,000 per entity minimum.
We were also pleased to see a filing by the Rodabough Education Group supporting a position first expressed in initial comments by the Illinois Office of Broadband and the New York State E‑Rate Applicants that the firewall definition in the Category 2 section of the current Eligible Services List (“ESL”) for Category 2 is not limited to “basic” features. We take this to mean that the FCC could redefine advanced firewalls as eligible under Category 2, conceivably even for the coming 2023 funding year, without modifying the FY 2023 ESL.*
Given the universal support for cybersecurity eligibility by the entire educational community, and the availability of E-rate funding even within existing caps, we see no reason — except perhaps the lack of will — that the FCC does not, as a first step, move immediately to make advanced firewalls E-rate eligible under Category 2.