A report issued by the by the Government Accountability Office this week claims it is virtually impossible to measure the success of the Federal Communications Commission's E-Rate program because the agency has still not set concrete performance goals.rnAs a federal program that is designed to give U.S. schools and libraries access to affordable telecom and Internet services, E-Rate has allotted more than $22 billion to recipients since its inception in 1998.The program gives priority to funding telecom services such as Internet access, as well as wireline and wireless voice. If the program has leftover money from funding these prioritized services.it can also be used to pay for cabling, routers, switches and network services to improve telecom systems delivering data to schools and libraries.rnHowever, the GAO says it cannot make a concrete assessment of the program's success because the FCC needs to establish what will make the program successful. Although the program does operate under the Universal Service Fund's goal of "providing telecommunications services to all Americans," it does not have a set of annual goals based on metrics such as new broadband connections or new phone services for libraries or private schools.
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