The Schools and Libraries Division will resume issuing funding commitments for the 2004 E-rate funding year on March 1, distributing 303 letters totaling more than $30.8 million in commitments.
The wave, number 14 for the 2004 funding year, will bring the total committed for that year to more than $1.7 billion. There was no change in the approved threshold for internal connections, which remains at 81 percent.
Applicants that receive funding commitments for non-recurring expenses (most typically internal connections) on or after March 1, 2005, qualify for additional time—to September 30, 2006—to use those discounts. The SLD held up issuing more funding commitments for 2004 in mid-February in order to give applicants the benefit of the automatic extension of their installation deadline.
Currently, the SLD is running about $400 million behind the amount it had committed as of this date in 2004. Also, as of this date last year, the SLD announced that it would be able to fund all eligible 2003 requests for internal connections for applicants down to the 70 percent discount rate. So far, the SLD has not rejected any applications for internal connections for 2004 on the basis that funding is not available.
Further details on Wave 14 will be made available later this week.
