From the E-Rate Central weekly newsletter:
Category Two Budget Tool Update:
E-Rate Central staff noticed something interesting in the Category Two Budgets this past week. USAC’s EPC Category Budget Tool was reporting budgets that did not align with $150/student
for schools or $2.30/$5.00 per square foot for libraries. For example, the school shown below, with 727 students based on prior year calculations of $150/student, would have a C2 budget amount of $109,050. USAC’s tool, however, is reporting a C2 budget of
$110,140.50.
After inquiring with USAC and doing some additional research, it was determined that USAC is now applying a 1% inflation factor to budget calculations. As per the
2nd E-rate Modernization Order:
97.
Category Two Costs. We find that the $1 billion annual target budget set for category two services in the
E-rate Modernization Order is sufficient to provide the E-rate support needed for a five-year deployment of LANs and WLANs. In July, we stated that the question of available funds for these five-year
budgets was closely linked with the long-term funding for the E-rate program.238 We therefore applied the five-year budgets to applicants that received E-rate support for category two services in funding years 2015 and/or 2016, pending resolution of the program’s
overall funding needs. Having now extended these category two applicant budgets for all applicants for three additional funding years, we reaffirm the funding level for the E-rate support for category two budgets, based on the analysis set out in the
E-rate Modernization Order.239 We also index the category two budget target and the applicant budgets to inflation.
The calculations are as follows for the example above:
|
Funding Year |
Students |
Base Per Student |
Inflation Factor |
Post-Inflation Adjustment Per Student |
Total |
|
2015 |
727 |
$150
|
N/A |
$150.00
|
$109,050.00
|
|
2016 |
727 |
$150
|
N/A |
$150.00
|
$109,050.00
|
|
2017 |
727 |
$150
|
1% |
$151.50
|
$110,140.50
|
The inflation factor applies to both school and library budgets. Thus, the new effective Category Two budget is: $151.50/student for schools, $2.32/ sq. ft. or $5.05/ sq. ft. for
libraries, and a Category Two budget floor of $9,292.00.
Sonya Schryer Norris
Library of Michigan
702 W. Kalamazoo St.
PO Box 30009
Lansing, MI 48909
517-373-4457
http://www.michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan
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