We provide internet access to four school districts, businesses, non-profit organizations and individual users. Often, in such a rural setting a school, library, or health provider may not be able to, on their own, support the infrastructure needed to supply advanced telecommunications services for the benefit of those in need, even if the universal service was provided to them. Without the ability to identify universal service as segments of larger bandwith, the act would in effect punish schools and health care providers by separating them from community networking efforts and requiring them carry the financial burden of acting independently of the communities they serve. This could deprive students of access. We invite comment on what steps we should take to ensure that this requirement is met.
Schools have administrative procedures for the procurement of existing telecommunciations systems.
These should be used to determine who has authority to order such systems. There is no need to spend precious educational dollars on another level of bureaucracy. Schools should specifically be allowed to use telecommunications services covered under universal service if they so choose to set up home access systems for teachers and students to work remotely from their homes. It is our experience that a key element of the success of our curriculum work was this very concept. The teachers in our schools worked long, dedicated hours to complete the day to day tasks of teaching.