The Federal E-rate program has distributed over 20 billion dollars of refunds to schools to support their Telecommunications, Telephone Systems and Computer Systems. The neediest of schools routinely get up to 90% of their costs refunded by the federal government from the Universal Service Tax found on every telephone bill. However, it is an ever changing program that often requires schools to be involved with the previous, current, and upcoming year's issues all at the same time.

Missing simple deadlines or not responding timely to inquiries from the federal agency that oversees this program can cause schools to loose all of their reimbursements. Mistakes in the process not detected by the SLD can upon review, demand that schools return their refunds to the government. This can involve tens of thousands of dollars to schools that can not afford to make this mistake.

Your own experience with your school will show that no federal, state, or city program has rules that are constantly changing. Often, the principal or technology personnel, are responsible for applying for E-rate funds although it is a perpetual process that requires serious attention all year—and they do not have the time or expertise to do so. In fact, many smaller schools have opted out of the program entirely. We believe that outsourcing this task is the only reasonable solution. Studies have shown that the positions of those responsible for E-rate in schools changes every three years.