Ytown schools seek $1.7 million for telecommunications

YOUNGSTOWN — The city school district is asking the federal Universal Service Fund to pick up nearly $1.7 million in telecommunications services.

The fund, more commonly know as E-Rate, was created by the federal government to help underwrite the cost of telecommunication and Internet access services to schools and libraries.

The program, run through the Federal Communications Commission, gets its money from a universal service fee charged to companies that provide interstate or international telecommunications services.

It picks up between 20 percent and 90 percent of the cost of such services for eligible schools and libraries, with the actual percentage determined by a district’s or individual school building’s service-area poverty level.

Youngstown’s poverty-level rating is high enough that most of its E-Rate funding comes in around 90 percent of the actual total cost.

The district has been successful in securing extensive support from the program, receiving just over $15 million in discounted services and reimbursements since E-Rate was launched in 1998.

For more, see Tuesday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com