Public libraries face three major E-rate problems, the...

less financial support from the federal government “than any other institution in the civic landscape,” even though libraries have a tremendous need for funding, ULC said. “Part of E-rate reform should be the creation of a formula for prioritizing library funding,” it said. Third, E-rate reforms need to address the contracting process for libraries, ULC said: All public libraries should have access to the contracting prices obtained by other libraries and schools in similar geographic areas; and they should be able to opt into contracts the FCC puts out for bids. Public libraries have been getting only about $60 million a year from the E-rate fund, ULC attorney Reed Hundt told us. Given there are about one sixth as many libraries as schools, and schools have gotten about $2.4 billion, “public libraries should have been getting $400 million,” Hundt said. “It’s an incredible amount of shortchanging of public libraries,” he said. “Speaking as the guy that put the program together, I am shocked that it turned out this way.” Hundt was chairman of the FCC and responsible for its initial implementation after the E-rate program was created by Congress. The primary reason the shortfall has happened is because E-rate hasn’t paid for internal connections, he said, and public libraries are “all about internal connections,” like Wi-Fi everywhere.