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50-408: The Schools and Libraries Program supports connectivity – the conduit or pipeline for communications using telecommunications services and/or the internet. Funding is requested under four categories of service: telecommunications services, internet access, internal connections, and basic maintenance of internal connections. Discounts for support depend on the level of poverty and the urban/rural status of

100-454: A school board ) may be elected, appointed by a political office holder, serve ex officio , or a combination of any of these. An independent school district is a legally separate body corporate and political . Most school districts operate as independent local governmental units with exclusive authority over K–12 public educational operations and policies. The extent of their control is set by state-level law. Litigation against school districts

150-430: A telecommunications service is a service provided by a telecommunications provider , or a specified set of user - information transfer capabilities provided to a group of users by a telecommunications system . The telecommunications service user is responsible for the information content of the message . The telecommunications service provider has the responsibility for the acceptance, transmission , and delivery of

200-481: A "board of trustees," "board of education," "school committee," etc.. This body usually appoints or hires an experienced public school administrator to function as the district's superintendent of schools – a district's chief executive . The superintendent oversees daily operations, decisions and implements the policies of the board. The school board may also exercise a quasi-judicial function in serious employee or student discipline matters. School districts in

250-1048: A University of Texas student under the supervision of economics professor Mike Ward, using regression analysis, showed the E-Rate program in Texas school districts to have positive effect on factors like test scores, graduation rates, and college admission rates. The Schools and Libraries portion of the Universal Service Fund, more widely known as E-Rate, was authorized as part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 , section 254. The act called for universal service , meaning that everyone should have access to advanced telecommunications services at reasonable rates regardless of their location. Two measures were included to advance this goal specifically for libraries and schools. Telecommunications providers were ordered to supply their services to schools and libraries at discounted rates determined by

300-632: A businessman. In 2013, an investigation by a Jewish newspaper found that Haredi Jewish schools in New York City received millions in E-rate funding, despite their practice of rejecting modern technology. Under the E-rate program rules, service providers are not allowed to charge schools more than the "Lowest Corresponding Price", meaning that companies cannot charge schools more than they charge other non-residential users for service. However, providers such as AT&T and Verizon sometimes charge 325% or 200% of

350-603: A certain degree comparable to a school district. Other arrangements are possible: certain types of special schools in North Rhine-Westphalia are run by the Landschaftsverbände . There also exist private schools , mostly funded by the States, but run by private entities like churches or foundations. In Italy , school districts were established in 1974 by the " Provvedimenti Delegati sulla scuola " ("Assigned Laws [to

400-561: A decline in property tax revenues during and after the Great Recession . By 2016 there were about 13,000 school districts, and the average student population was about 5,000. Although these terms can vary slightly between various states and regions, these are typical definitions for school district constitution: These terms may not appear in a district's name, even though the condition may apply. In England and Wales , school boards were established in 1870, and abolished in 1902, with

450-411: A decrease of 38,127 or 35%. Many states had passed laws facilitating school district consolidation. In 1951 the majority of the school districts in existence were rural school districts only providing elementary education, and some school districts did not operate schools but instead provided transportation to other schools. The Midwest had a large number of rural school districts. Previously areas of

500-491: A history of fraud. Random audits conducted by the OIG led to criminal investigations. In response, congress requested a Government Accountability Office report on the health of E-Rate and planned hearings on the matter. The GAO found serious fault with the unusual organizational structure of E-Rate. USAC was not operating under federal fiscal accountability standards. Also, the GAO decried

550-632: A minority of secondary schools , a few primary schools, and much further education . (Most schools are neither organized geographically nor publicly managed, although the Department of Education inspects and funds them and pays teachers' salaries.) Each ETB area comprises one or more local authority areas , with city or county councilors forming the bulk of the ETB board. The ETBs was formed in 2005 by amalgamating Vocational Education Committees established in 1930, also based on local government areas. In Hong Kong ,

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600-484: A national website. Record-keeping requirements were instituted to facilitate audits. The FCC decided to fund E-Rate through the same pool of money collected for other Universal Service Fund, or USF, programs. The new language in the Telecommunications Act of 1996 expanded the pool of companies required to contribute. The expanded pool included all companies that provided interstate telecommunications service to

650-401: A part of their applications, schools and libraries were required to conduct an assessment of their current technology resources and explain how they utilize them for their educational mission. This assessment had to be certified by an outside organization, preferably the state government. Schools and libraries were required to select vendors through a competitive bidding process publicized through

700-450: A school system that is separate but similar to a town's or a county's powers. These include the power to enter contacts, use eminent domain , and to issue binding rules and regulations affecting school policies and operations. The power of school districts to tax and spend is generally more limited. For example, many school districts in New York state require a majority of voters living in

750-706: A single school district." Noting that most modern school districts were formed by consolidating one-room school districts in the first seven decades of the 20th century, Fischel argues that "outside the South, these consolidations were consented to by local voters" who "preferred districts whose boundaries conformed to their everyday interactions rather than formal units of government" and that "[t]he South ended up with county-based school districts because segregation imposed diseconomies of scale on district operations and required larger land-area districts." In New York , most school districts are separate governmental units with

800-449: A state), most American school districts operate as independent local governmental units under a grant of authority and within geographic limits created by state law. The executive and legislative power over locally-controlled policies and operations of an independent school district are, in most cases, held by a school district's board of education. Depending on state law, members of a local board of education (often referred to informally as

850-618: Is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary or secondary schools or both in various countries. It is not to be confused with an attendance zone, which is within a school district and is used to assign students to schools in a district and not to determine government authority. In the U.S., most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts. A school district usually operate several elementary , middle , and high schools . The largest urban and suburban districts operate hundreds of schools. While practice varies significantly by state (and in some cases, within

900-427: Is common and some law firms specialize in education law. Districts typically maintain professional liability insurance in order to pay its settlements and legal liabilities. As of 2023 in most U.S. states, public school districts may lay taxes to fund their operations. In others, such as Maine , some school districts are able to lay taxes and others are not. Independent school districts often exercise authority over

950-674: The 106th Congress to end E-Rate and replace it by a block grant program administered by the Commerce Department. Several other pieces of legislation have been introduced that keep E-Rate but change the funding mechanism to avoid a direct impact on local phone service. In 2002, a report on Universal Service Fund from the FCC's Office of Inspector General found that E-Rate had a "lack of resources for effective oversight", "inadequate competitive bidding requirements", and "no suspension or disbarment process" for schools, libraries, or companies with

1000-665: The Education Bureau divides primary schools into 36 districts, known as school nets, for its Primary One Admission System . Of the 36 districts, districts 34 and 41 in Kowloon and districts 11 and 12 in Hong Kong Island are considered the most prestigious. In Iranian cities school kids normal registrations are limited by school districts, register is online at my.medu.ir and the parent sees schools within range online. Telecommunications service In telecommunications ,

1050-773: The Midwest and West tend to cross municipal boundaries, while school districts in New England and the Mid-Atlantic regions tend to adhere to city, township, and/or county boundaries. As of 1951 school districts were independent governmental units in 26 states, while in 17 states there were mixes of independent school districts and school districts subordinate to other local governments. In nine states there were only school districts subordinate to local governments. In most Southern states, school systems operate either as an arm of county government or at least share coextensive boundaries with

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1100-671: The Unorganized Borough of Alaska were not served by school districts but instead served by schools directly operated by the Alaska Department of Education and by Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) schools. The state schools were transferred to the Alaska State-Operated School System (SOS) after the Alaska Legislature created it in 1971; that agency was terminated in 1975, with its schools transferred to

1150-442: The county council and county borough councils becoming the local education authorities . In France, the system of the carte scolaire was dismantled by the beginning of the 2007 school year. More school choice has been given to French students; however, priority is given to those who meet the following criteria: In Germany , schools and teachers are predominately funded by the states of Germany , which also are in control of

1200-527: The E-rate program has had a positive impact on schools. A 2006 case study performed by the Benton Foundation found that E-Rate funding had a direct impact on classroom internet connectivity in four cities. An evaluation of E-Rate in California by Goolsbee and Guryan showed a 68% increase in classroom connectivity per teacher but could not identify any impact on student achievement. A study concluded in 2005 by

1250-594: The E-rate program. Examples include $ 101 million in equipment which was used for nine schools in Puerto Rico, a $ 73 million network in Atlanta which never went through a bidding process, and a $ 21 million settlement from the NEC for fraud and price rigging. In 2009, a division of AT&T settled $ 8.2 million in lawsuits alleging violations of the bidding process, as well as using E-rate to cover ineligible services. In September 2010,

1300-570: The FCC adopted a broad overhaul of the E-rate program, named the E-Rate Modernization order . The order focused on expanding subsidies for Wi-Fi to a target of $ 1 billion a year. The move followed a month after a request for reform by president Barack Obama , who had advocated reform of the program during his presidential candidacy in 2007. The move was embraced by many in the telecommunications industry, including Comcast , Cisco , and PCIA - The Wireless Infrastructure Association . The reform

1350-659: The FCC tightened restrictions on gifts given to school personnel by telecommunications companies for the E-rate program. In November 2010, Hewlett-Packard settled a lawsuit for $ 16.25 million concerning contractors illegally giving gifts to school officials in exchange for contracts on E-rate funded equipment. The HP lawsuits were part of a larger investigation of the Texas E-rate program by the US Department of Justice which included smaller settlements from Houston Independent School District , Dallas Independent School District , and

1400-425: The FCC. More generally, the FCC was directed to establish rules "to enhance... access to advanced telecommunications and information services for all public and nonprofit elementary and secondary school classrooms, health care providers, and libraries". The FCC was given the authority to establish and periodically evaluate what services qualified for support under both measures according to four broad criteria. Funding

1450-667: The Fifth Circuit ruled that the False Claims Act could not be used to prosecute fraud in the E-rate program, because the program was not funded by federal money. The fifth circuit ruled that E-rate was outside the scope of the False Claims Act, forcing the Universal Service Administrative Company to find other legal justification for the pricing enforcement. School district A school district

1500-546: The Government] about the school"). Each district must contain a minimum of 10,000 inhabitants. The national government attempted to link the local schools with local society and culture and local governments. The school districts were dissolved in 2003 by the "legge finanziaria" (law about the government budget) in an attempt to trim the national budget. In the Republic of Ireland, 16 Education and Training Boards (ETBs) administer

1550-611: The Schools and Libraries Program. Yearly requests for E-Rate funding almost triple the FCC's $ 2.25 billion limit. At the beginning of 2005, over 100,000 schools had participated in the program. In 2003, nearly half of the funding went to schools where more than half of the students receive reduced price lunches. Broadly, US Department of Education's nationally representative surveys show that between 1994 and 1999, internet access in public schools rose from 35% to 95%, and access in classrooms rose from 3% to 63%. Some studies have suggested that

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1600-613: The USF recipient groups. In Order 97-253 the FCC agreed to this proposal. The FCC also directed NECA to create two unaffiliated corporations to manage the schools and libraries and rural health care programs. However, Senator Ted Stevens and the House Committee on Commerce soon inquired whether this violated the Government Corporation Control Act. The Government Accountability Office concluded that it did, and an amendment

1650-459: The United States tend to be different from the demographics of the students. This difference is "most pronounced in majority nonwhite jurisdictions and school districts with the largest racial achievement gaps ." There were 130,000 school districts in the country in 1930, with an average student population of 150. From 1942 to 1951 the number of school districts declined from 108,579 to 70,452,

1700-464: The district or the local government to approval their annual budget, but school districts in Virginia have no taxing authority and must depend on another local government (county, city, or town) for funding. A district's governing body, usually called a school board , is typically elected by direct popular vote but may be appointed by other governmental officials. The governing body might also be known as

1750-504: The existing universal service fund, and in their initial authorizing order the FCC directed the NECA to temporarily administer E-Rate as well. When the NECA was unable to agree on how to restructure its Board of Directors to reduce the influence of incumbent local exchange carriers, it instead proposed creation of a subsidiary, the Universal Service Administrative Company, with a board composed of representatives from telecommunications providers and

1800-706: The lack of performance measures for evaluating the impact of E-Rate funds. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce's Subcommittee on Oversights and Investigations held four hearings into misuse of E-Rate funds. The subcommittee found a multitude of irregularities: purchases were being made with fraudulent documentation and without competitive bidding; inadequate strategic technology plans were accepted and led to unused, wasted resources; and no protections were in place to prevent gold plating ("procurement of technology goods and services far beyond reasonable school district needs and resources") and many other forms of abuse. Critics point to many cases of fraud and wastefulness in

1850-512: The message. For purposes of regulation by the Federal Communications Commission under the U.S. Communications Act of 1934 and Telecommunications Act of 1996 , the definition of telecommunications service is "the offering of telecommunications for a fee directly to the public, or to such classes of users as to be effectively available directly to the public, regardless of the facilities used." Telecommunications , in turn,

1900-585: The newly created Alaska Unorganized Borough School District, which was broken apart into twenty-one school districts the following year. In the 2022 Census of Governments, the United States Census Bureau enumerated the following numbers of school systems in the United States: School districts in the US have reduced the number of their employees by 3.3%, or 270,000 between 2008 and 2012, owing to

1950-504: The overall education policies. On the other hand, school buildings are mostly run and funded by municipal governments on different levels of the municipal system (municipalities proper, districts), depending on the size and specialization of a certain school or the population size of a certain municipality. As with other fields of government, for more specialized schools, special government bodies ("Zweckverband") can be established, where municipalities, and not voters, are members; these are to

2000-417: The population served and range from 20% to 90% of the costs of eligible services. Eligible schools, school districts and libraries may apply individually or as part of a consortium. Applicants must provide additional resources including end-user equipment (e.g., computers, telephones, etc.), software, professional development , and the other elements that are necessary to utilize the connectivity funded by

2050-559: The power to establish user fees may be delegated to executive agencies , but the power to tax may not. The court found that the FCC's collection of USF fees did not violate the constitution. Some members of congress objected to the level and method of funding provided by the FCC to E-Rate. They viewed the inclusion of internal connections and $ 2.25 billion budget as excessive and a drain on resources needed to achieve other aspects of universal service. Two such members, Representative Tauzin and Senator Burns, proposed unsuccessful legislation in

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2100-441: The power to levy taxes and incur debt, except for the five cities with a population of over 125,000 ( Buffalo , Rochester , Syracuse , Yonkers , and New York City ), where the schools are operated directly by the municipalities. The Hawaii State Department of Education functions as a single statewide school district, unique among states. According to a 2021 study, the demographics of voters who elect local school boards in

2150-591: The price charged to others in the same area. In order to enforce equal pricing, the Universal Service Administrative Company adopted the "Payment Quality Assurance" auditing program, to ensure the program's rules are followed. Under the auditing program, false statements of the Lowest Corresponding Price were prosecuted under the False Claims Act. However, in July 2014 the United States Court of Appeals for

2200-629: The public for a fee. As of 1998, around 3500 companies contributed to the USF. A company's contribution to the USF is based on its interstate and intrastate revenues from sales to end users. Companies submit revenue projections, from which the contribution factor is determined and then assessed. This process takes place on a quarterly basis (How the USF Works). In order to preserve low-cost local phone service, companies are only permitted to increase interstate revenues to recoup their USF contribution costs. The National Exchange Carrier Association (NECA) managed

2250-551: The state's counties. A 2010 study by economist William A. Fischel found that "two-thirds of medium-to-large American cities have boundaries that substantially overlap those of a single school district" with substantial regional and state variations in the degree of overlap, "ranging from nearly perfect congruence in New England , New Jersey, and Virginia, to hardly any in Illinois, Texas, and Florida." Older and more populous municipalities "tend to have boundaries that closely match those of

2300-470: The transmission of information within the school or library". The level of discount that a school or library received would vary from 20% to 90% depending on the cost of services and level of poverty as measured by the percentage of students eligible for the national school lunch program . The total amount of money to be disbursed was capped at 2.25 billion or 15%. The FCC designed the application process to promote cost effective and accountable solutions. As

2350-585: Was added to s.1768 that required the FCC to restructure USF administration. In response, the two new corporations were terminated and their responsibilities shifted to two new divisions within USAC. The Children's Internet Protection Act , passed in the year 2000, stipulates that in order to receive E-rate funding, schools and libraries are required to block or filter internet access to pictures that are: (a) obscene; (b) child pornography; or (c) harmful to minors (for computers that are accessed by minors). On July 23, 2014,

2400-657: Was also lauded by the American Library Association. In November 2014, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler proposed the first increase in the E-rate budget, an increase of $ 1.5 billion. In December 2014, the FCC approved the increase by a vote of 3–2, raising the total budget from 2.4 to 3.9 billion. In addition to the incorporation scandal, E-Rate faced legal challenges from eleven states and six telecommunications companies. These were consolidated in Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel, et al. v. FCC. The chief state complaint

2450-628: Was to be provided by contributions from telecommunications providers through an unspecified but "equitable and nondiscriminatory" mechanism. The E-rate program was strongly supported by then vice-president Al Gore as a way to connect classrooms to the internet. On May 7, 1997, the FCC adopted Order 97-157 as its plan to implement section 254 of the 1996 Telecommunications Act . The FCC determined that "telecommunications services, internet access, and internal connections", including "installation and maintenance", were eligible for discounted rates. Internal connections were defined as "essential element[s] in

2500-535: Was unrelated to E-Rate, but a company complaint about the method of contribution was relevant. Since the USF fee collection is mandated by the federal government, the CBO and OMB consider the fees collected to be federal revenues and the money disbursed for discounts to be federal outlays. However, only the United States House of Representatives is constitutionally permitted to introduce revenue-generating measures. Also,

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