Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER JESSICA ROSENWORCEL

Re:	E-Rate Program Amortization Requirement, WC Docket No. 19-2; Modernizing the E-Rate Program for Schools and Libraries, WC Docket No. 13-184 

	The idea behind E-Rate is simple:  let’s get all of our schools and libraries connected to modern communications and the internet.  Thanks to this simple, but bold proposition, today schools and libraries in communities in every state across the country are now connected to the internet.  In fact, E-Rate is the nation’s largest educational technology program.  
	A few years ago, at my urging, this agency embarked on a process to update E-Rate—because the program appeared stuck in the dial-up era.  This work brought the program forward and produced results—tens of millions of students now have the broadband they need in their classrooms and libraries.  Libraries have seen dramatic increases in support.  Rural schools and libraries have benefitted.  
Today, we look to extend the impact of our policies in connection with one discrete aspect of the E-Rate program—eliminating the need to amortize large construction costs in order to make it easier to connect schools and libraries.  This is the right call and it has my support.  
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