NAVAJO COUNTY — The chance to close the digital divide for Navajo County’s rural schools and libraries currently stands in jeopardy due to recent develops regarding their application for E-rate funding.
Three years ago the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) nearly doubled the funding to $3.9 billion available in the federal E-rate program administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) for schools and libraries in rural America to apply for broadband networks in order to close the digital divide.
The first year the expanded program was announced, Navajo County Library District Director Geneva Durkee began exploring broadband for the libraries in Navajo County while the County School Superintendent’s office made sure the various school districts in the county were aware of this opportunity.
During the second year Navajo County’s schools and libraries joined forces to work together on a proposal for a broadband network, but it was only in this current third year of funding that an application was submitted.
Navajo County libraries and schools joined forces with Gila County schools and libraries, creating the Navajo-Gila County Information Technology Education Consortium. The application for E-rate funding for 51 schools and libraries within the two counties was submitted to USAC in March of this year.
When USAC announced the increase of funding for broadband, it also announced that, “If a state provides eligible schools and libraries with funding for special construction charges for high-speed broadband that meets the FCC’s long-term connectivity targets, the E-rate Program will increase an applicant’s discount rate for these charges up to an additional 10 percent to match the state funding on a one-to-one dollar basis.”
The State of Arizona, recognizing this opportunity for rural Arizona, adopted the Arizona State Broadband Initiative and secured $8 million to provide matching funds.
After submitting the application for its $61 million project in March, the Consortium received approval for matching funding of $5.2 million from the State of Arizona for its project to install over 1,000 miles of fiber optics between the 51 schools and libraries. Red Rock Telecommunications was the vendor chosen by the Consortium.
According to the rules of the E-rate funding, the Consortium would receive 83 percent of the $61 million from USAC and with the state match, the USAC funding would increase another seven percent, making the broadband service no cost to the Consortium.
The Consortium’s application is currently under review with USAC’s stringent review process and the group has had to respond to several requests for clarification.
On July 11, the Consortium received an email from USAC that stated: “The Review Team has completed its review of your application. We are denying your Funding Request Number (FRN). We have determined a Program rule violation occurred. Before USAC issues your Funding Commitment Decision Letter, we want to inform you of the FRN(s) decision and give you an opportunity to provide additional information or explanation as to why your funding request is eligible for E-rate discounts.”
The program rule violation was based on the primary criteria being to choose the lowest bidder. Durkee said, “When USAC saw the $61 million for Red Rock, they thought we had violated the rules. The truth was we didn’t have our application fleshed out well enough to help them understand it was a 10-year period of costs we were looking at, which is allowed by USAC rules, not just a one-year cost. Over 10 years, we did choose the vendor with the lowest cost.”
The Consortium had until July 17 to provide additional information and explanation, which they did, making sure the explanations were very clear that the evaluation was assessing costs over a 10-year period. Their efforts appeared successful as USAC did not request further information on that subject.
Other questions have been asked on a different topic, to which the Consortium is again replying and providing the needed answers.
Then on July 17, the County Superintendents received an email from the State E-rate Controller Milan Eaton with the Arizona Department of Education (ADE), informing them that the state was pulling their funding, claiming that USAC had denied the application.
Durkee said, “This email was received before the deadline to respond to USAC’s review – a big surprise since no final denial had been issued. In the email Eaton indicated that the evaluation process had problems and we had to start over.”
Durkee continued, “Mr. Eaton was aware of the correspondence we received from USAC and he immediately jumped on USAC’s wording, ‘We are denying your funding’; overlooking that USAC said we could submit further information and explanations.”
It was a blow the Consortium never anticipated. Durkee said, “We didn’t realize that USAC had gotten the word that our match had been denied. We are trying to get Milan to understand that we are in review; we are still able to submit proof and evidence. It would be an extremely sorry state of affairs if this contretemps on the part of the ADE causes the State of Arizona to lose over $54 million in funding for broadband expansion in our state. I certainly hope that the withdrawal of state matching funds will be reversed and that ADE will become a strong advocate to bring more E-rate dollars into our state instead of creating roadblocks.”
Navajo County Information Technology Director Ken Dewitt, who has assisted the Consortium with technical knowledge and manages the public libraries’ connections, said, “We are also pushing for clarification about the state funding being denied by Milan Eaton from the ADE. We believe that this is an error that can and should be corrected.”
The Boards of Supervisors for both Navajo and Gila counties are also the Boards for the Library Districts, and to that end, every member has lent their support to this process.
Navajo County Superintendent of Schools Jalyn Gerlich summed it up when she said, “Our schools and libraries require affordable broadband to enable our students and community members to stay on level with our urban counterparts. To conduct basic functions many community members use the library. Those services can only be accessed via internet. An example is accessing Social Security services.
“An example for the school districts, our students are required to take state mandated assessments online. To be academically competitive they require a broadband infrastructure that is adequate to meet the needs of the 21st century. The list of the tasks that both locations utilize broadband to function is endless. All of these basic functions require broadband that has the capacity and affordability that this project would bring.”
