Former FCC Republican Michael O’Rielly Supports Ending E-Rate ‘If Is Is Hurting Students’
“If E-Rate is not delivering, or worse, if it is hurting students, then it should be curtailed or ended,” O’Rielly says, adding the FCC has the legal authority to pursue reforms.
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E-Rate: Former Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly says the agency has clear legal authority to overhaul the E‑Rate program and should confront whether decades of subsidies are improving student learning. In an Aug. 31 analysis (Yes To an E-Rate Reality Check) for the Free State Foundation, where he is an Adjunct Senior Fellow, O’Rielly wrote that “nothing in the law prevents the agency from testing the program’s effectiveness and pursuing needed reforms,” adding that E‑Rate funding “is not an entitlement.” The E-Rate cost taxpayers $2.3 billion in 2025. “If E-Rate is not delivering, or worse, if it is hurting students, then it should be curtailed or ended,” O’Rielly said. (More after paywall)
