Rating E-Rate: Evaluating the U.S. Schools and Libraries Program

Abstract

Publicly financed libraries play a unique role in providing Internet access to traditionally marginalized segments of the population in the US. Libraries are particularly useful in addressing the difficult and costly problem of targeting Internet subsidies to those requiring assistance, since library patrons of computer and Internet services self-select these forms of access. Previous research has shown that the popularity of these service offerings in libraries offset what would otherwise have been a secular decline in the number of library visitors over time. This paper analyzes the effectiveness of the major federal funding mechanism for U.S. libraries’ information technology infrastructure development, the so-called “E-Rate” program, in channeling Internet subsidies to libraries in poor and rural areas. Explicitly directed to channel funding to smaller, poorer, and more rural public entities (including but not limited to libraries), this program has been subjected to fierce procedural critiques since its very inception. Our analysis of this program offers empirical support for some of these criticisms. Statistical models of the distribution of E-Rate funds suggest that these funds are not being allocated in a manner that fully reflects the stated program objectives. The current E-Rate program seems particularly unhelpful in stimulating library connectivity in rural areas.