The Future of the E-Rate

By Mary Ann Zehr

The E-rate program has a lot more political clout than it did two years ago, when critics in Congress almost killed it before it got off the ground.

Today, most observers believe, its future is virtually assured.

"We're in a vastly different place than we were before the first monies had been distributed," says Keith R. Krueger, the executive director of the Washington- based Consortium for School Networking. "Then you had very strong congressional opposition and some people talking about phasing it out in five years. There still are critics, but they are not...