The Federal Communications Commission has rescinded its own report documenting the success of the E-rate program, a multibillion-dollar initiative led by the agency that has helped tens of thousands of schools and libraries obtain high-speed internet access.
The report will have 鈥渘o legal or other effect or meaning going forward,鈥� .
The move prompted a warning from a key Democratic senator and sharp criticism from education and open-government groups.
鈥淲hile new FCC leadership may have new policy directions, the public record should not be permanently altered,鈥� the American Library Association . 鈥淲e urge the reversal of the retraction decisions and an agreement that the FCC will not order the removal of any other documents from the public record.鈥�
The report was released Jan. 18, just two days before former FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, a Democrat who oversaw major changes to the E-rate program during his tenure, stepped down.
It was retracted Feb. 3, less than two weeks after President Donald Trump appointed , a Republican commissioner who voted against the Wheeler-led E-rate reforms in 2014, as chairman.
The order officially came from the acting chiefs of the commission鈥檚 Wireline Competition and Wireless Telecommunications bureaus, as well as the FCC鈥檚 managing director.
A commission spokesman said the report 鈥渄oes not reflect the official views of the agency.鈥� A copy remains available on its website.
Evidence of Success
Titled 鈥�,鈥� the document describes the impact of the FCC鈥檚 2014 effort to overhaul the E-rate program, which helps subsidize the cost of telecommunications services for public schools and libraries. In addition to raising the program鈥檚 annual spending cap from $2.4 billion to $3.9 billion, Wheeler and the commission鈥檚 Democratic majority approved regulations prioritizing broadband and Wi-Fi, increasing competition in the school broadband market, and making a wide range of data related to the program publicly available.
Among the report鈥檚 findings: Between 2013 and 2016, the percentage of school districts meeting minimum federal connectivity targets rose from 30 percent to 77 percent. During the same span, the cost schools paid for bandwidth fell from $22 to $7 per megabit per second.
The E-rate program is funded via fees on consumers鈥� phone bills. The report also notes that total payments made under the program in each of the last two years have fallen well short of its annual spending cap.
The FCC spokesman did not dispute the report鈥檚 findings, saying its publication 鈥渇ailed to follow proper procedures, and therefore, we can鈥檛 comment one way or the other on whether the findings and conclusions are accurate.鈥�
The findings echo those of nonprofit broadband-advocacy group EducationSuperHighway, which released its own analysis of E-rate application data last month.
Evan Marwell, the group鈥檚 CEO, said he was 鈥減erplexed鈥� as to why the FCC would withdraw a report showing the 鈥渢remendous success鈥� of its own program. 鈥淚鈥檇 think this report is exactly the kind of accountability Chairman Pai would like to see,鈥� Marwell said.
After word of the retraction order became public, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, the ranking member of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, .
The E-rate is 鈥渨ithout question the single most important educational technology program in the country,鈥� Nelson鈥檚 letter says. 鈥淥ur nation鈥檚 students, teachers, and librarians鈥攁nd this senator鈥攚ill hold you accountable for any changes that roll back this highly successful and cherished program that has helped bring internet connectivity and broadband to schools and libraries throughout the nation.鈥�
A New Vision
Pai has long supported the E-rate and believes it is a 鈥減rogram worth fighting for,鈥� according to the FCC spokesman.
In voting against E-rate modernization in 2014, however, Pai cast the changes to the program as financially irresponsible. He argued that Wheeler and his supporters were dismissive of the program鈥檚 impact on consumers and had not done enough to check waste, fraud, and abuse.
Pai has outlined his own plans to improve broadband access for rural schools and communities. As chairman, Pai also began last week unwinding recent changes to another FCC universal-service program known as the Lifeline.
It鈥檚 common for a federal agency to switch policy directions after a change in leadership, especially following a presidential election, said Douglas A. Levin, a consultant with EdTech Strategies and a former head of the State Educational Technology Directors Association.
But even during a switch in administration, rescinding a public report is an unusual decision that 鈥渓ooks awful,鈥� Levin said. 鈥淭o expunge the record is clearly a political move. It鈥檚 particularly curious because Pai himself seems to value data in decisionmaking.鈥�
The move could signal a coming effort to reduce overall FCC spending on universal-service programs, Levin said.
It also lends credence to the growing fear that the Trump administration is engaged in a pattern of undermining access to information and the credibility of scientific evidence, said Alexander Howard, the deputy director of the Sunlight Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates open data and government transparency.
Howard cited the administration鈥檚 questioning of widely accepted unemployment figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the removal of thousands of documents detailing animal-welfare abuses from the U.S. Department of Agriculture website as similarly troubling examples.
The FCC鈥檚 decision to rescind its E-rate report and walk away from its findings is more reason for concern, he said.
鈥淚f there鈥檚 a body of scientific evidence collected by an agency about how to accomplish its mission, that鈥檚 something we should want to be preserved in the public record,鈥� Howard said. 鈥淭he basic issue we are starting to run into is whether science itself is becoming politicized.鈥�
