| Yep. All I can say is that we are waiting for them to get to our funding level so we can kick our old Phone system for VOIP *crosses fingers*
The program has a ton of paper work and proceedings and is larger than most of you think I believe. Where I work I have been apart of the process and I can tell you that there are many places where things can go wrong and waste can happen. We've caught a vendor that tried to pad the bill after they won the contract and had the price of equipment off by 50k!
The fact is that its a money parade and we all have heard the saying about a fool and his money. |
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Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA | The problem is structural The problem with the Universal Service Administrative Company is structural and no amount of stating goals or reporting to the FCC is going to change that. |
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 HpowerRoflmao
join:2000-06-08
Glendale, CA
1 edit | FCC = fail I wonder which of their programs work anyway :P |
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 IowaManPremium
join:2008-08-21
Grinnell, IA | None, look at the whole DTV Mess. |
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| Auditing While I'm not going to say that there isn't waste involved, the e-rate program does help a great deal of schools throughout the country. I'm personally familiar with the process and have file the paperwork and jumped through the hoops for almost 5 years now. What Karl didn't mention here is that for the first time ever, the USAC has budgeted more money for auditing than any other individual operating cost. This may help to reduce some of the wasteful spending. Link: »www.e-ratecentral.com/archive/Ne···0413.asp |
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| pooring money down a toilet Anyone that believes that a government entity can and will operate effectively and efficiently is fooling themselves. It hasn't been done in the 200+ years of the republic, I don't see it happening in the future. |
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elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA | Shut it down School districts already get way too much money.
They certainly don't need ANY federal money.
It isn't a "a mess". It is a fraud. |
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bac522
join:2003-08-04
Manchester, NH | When I worked at a CLEC we loved billing for this fund because CLEC's didn't have to pay for it, but not one customer ever questioned it...yes it was a nice little "slush" fund...although to be honest it troubled me that we were duping customer's like this with bogus charges. We also charge a billing fee too! Yup, we charged you $5 to bill you and again most customers paid it because the Accounts Payable dept. didn't care! Added up to $50K a month in extra money.
Its rather sad how sleazy the telecom industry has become  ! |
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 POBRes Firma Mitescere NescitPremium
join:2003-02-13
Stepford, CA | reply to viper3431
Re: Auditing said by viper3431:[...] the USAC has budgeted more money for auditing than any other individual operating cost. This may help to reduce some of the wasteful spending. Highly doubtful. The USF is a universal slush fund. Money goes into the fund and walks out in executive management's pockets. Period. It will never be tracked/audited in any meaningful way because this particular gravy train has been rolling along for over a decade with zero oversight and only the GAO to point out what needs to be done.
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The Toll
Tracking Lord Stanley
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Re: Shut it down said by elray:School districts already get way too much money. They certainly don't need ANY federal money. It isn't a "a mess". It is a fraud. To say in a blanket statement that school districts already have too much money is nothing more than a dumb remark fueled by your ignorance of the subject. While this may be the case in your particular area I suggest that you do some additional homework on other districts in the nation, particularly the rural ones. |
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1 edit | reply to POB
Re: Auditing Did you look at the link I posted? The numbers were clearly printed in black and white. There is also money that goes into that fund that gets sent back to schools for telecom services. If you think I'm being silly, call all of the school districts around you and ask them what their e-rate funding level is and total annual amounts on their recent FCDLs (funding committment decision letters).
Now there is most certainly abuse of the program by providers and applicants but that is what the auditing is for. I'm also familiar with that process....in case you were wondering. |
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| reply to elray
Re: Shut it down You obviously don't work in education, with such a poor interpretation of the matter. |
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 KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | reply to viper3431
It doesn't matter that the schools benefit from it, there is no doubt, we agree they do. The problem is the fund is overrun with waste and lack of oversight, not so much at the school level, but the telecom level.
The Telecom provides the school, which is great for the school. Benefit received. The Telecom then massively overinflates or exaggerates the costs of providing the school's services, and they just print their own bill and submit it to the E-rate program for full payment. THIS is the fraud, the waste, the slush.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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1 edit | While I don't disagree that there is some amount of fraud in the program I believe that you may be foggy on how the process works. The applicants of the program file for services and state the costs up front (from provider). Funding is either approved or denied and the telecom is reimbursed up to approved dollar amounts, which is based on funding level, which is based on NSLP data. Discounts are passed on to school by either SPI or BEAR until approved amount is absorbed. Contracted services further enable the applicant to lock in prices with the provider and statements are provided to the applicant quarterly. Applicants are also required to keep paperwork for 5 years after the last date of service.
It sounds to me like the slush you refer to is at fault of the applicants for not keeping up with their statements and discounts. Edit: I firmly believe that unless you have personally dealt with the paperwork and the forms (470, 471, 486, 479, BEAR etc.) then you're going to have to really convince me that you know what you're talking about and provide factual information to back it. |
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KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | said by viper3431:It sounds to me like the slush you refer to is at fault of the applicants for not keeping up with their statements and discounts. Because of lax oversight there's little incentive to try and do it efficiently.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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| And that's why I posted above that budgeting for audits has significantly increased this year. Again, I'm very familiar with the e-rate process and I feel your opinion may be different had you seen it from my perspective. |
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POBRes Firma Mitescere NescitPremium
join:2003-02-13
Stepford, CA | reply to viper3431
Re: Auditing said by viper3431:Did you look at the link I posted? The numbers were clearly printed in black and white. So you don't think there is any waste/fraud whatsoever going on at the schools allegedly receiving those funds, and, even if there is, that's A-OK with you because even if the entire USF program is a scam/joke, the very few schools that may be the recipients of the USF outweigh any oversight. Sorry, I'm not with you on that count. The entire fund needs to go away or else have some serious auditing and accountability processes implemented.
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The Toll
Tracking Lord Stanley
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elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA | reply to viper3431
Re: Shut it down said by viper3431:said by elray:School districts already get way too much money. They certainly don't need ANY federal money. It isn't a "a mess". It is a fraud. To say in a blanket statement that school districts already have too much money is nothing more than a dumb remark fueled by your ignorance of the subject. While this may be the case in your particular area I suggest that you do some additional homework on other districts in the nation, particularly the rural ones. Sorry, but I live in a town where we increase school funding by leaps and bounds every year, and yet, the district has a 50% dropout rate. If you're looking for ignorance, it is found in the classroom, not in my wallet.
School districts have TOO MUCH money - the mission is lost by the pursuit of funding. At our local high school (now an "inner city school", though its under a mile to the beach), the most important article in the school newspaper covers the cafeteria manager's quest to get students to submit their free-meal-ticket forms in order to get her federal funding. Our county is spending in excess of $20 billion dollars to build schools they acknowledge don't need, but they're willing to evict thousands from their homes under eminent domain to achieve their "goal" "for the children".
The last thing they need is the federal government offering to tax us to pay their phone and internet bills. Our local school district can't even FIND the millions of dollars of PCs they bought with e-rate, having allowed students and staff to pilfer them with a wink and a nod.
If we are to have government that is responsible and accountable, we must be willing to pull the plug, to stop the funding outright, when there is abuse.
If there are rural schools that need assistance, that should be handled at a local level, not from Washington. |
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| Should we handle social security and health care at the local level also? Every student needs an education and it is up to the government to see that they get it with programs that aid based on needs like e-rate does. It truly sounds like the schooling in your area has some major issues and I can see your frustration, but I can assure that it is not that way everywhere. The STL metro area is closing schools instead of building new ones because they cannot afford to keep them all open, and class sizes are growing. |
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