It is two weeks until the start of the 2017 funding year and 7,402 applicants already have received E-rate funding commitments totaling $126 million. Last year, at this same point, no funding commitments had even been released, and it was not until the end of July that a similar level of commitments were announced.
Cumulative E-rate Funding Commitments ($ millions)
Of course, FY2016 set the bar very low. The pace of its funding commitments could not have been much worse than it was. But progress is still progress, and it is encouraging to see that this new year is off to a better start than last year.