Joe Rodriguez is a San Benito resident, a local citizen watchdog, and a former candidate for the San Benito City Commission.
Section 3, Chapter 11 of Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise, titled “Department of Education” and authored by Lindsey M. Burke, discusses dismantling the federal role in education, eliminating federal programs, and shifting support toward school choice and privatization. https://tinyurl.com/Project2025-Mandate-Leadership
As part of the Project 2025 proposal to sunset or phase out federal funding for traditional public schools, eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, and redirect taxpayer money toward private and charter school options, the E-Rate program is under review by the Trump Administration, leaving public education officials and advocates concerned about potentially significant cuts.
Under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC established the E-Rate program to provide schools and libraries with affordable access to advanced telecommunications services.
The Universal Service Schools and Libraries Program, also known as E-Rate, is administered by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC). Through discounts on eligible services and equipment, E-Rate ensures that Texas students and educators have the connectivity they need to support digital learning and modern classroom technologies.
The E-Rate program provides schools and public libraries with discounts ranging from 30% to 90% on internet and telecommunications services.
It provides $3 billion every year to more than 100,000 schools and 11,000 libraries across the country that rely on these funds. The program offers higher discounts to the most disadvantaged schools and libraries.
According to the School Superintendents Association (AASA), the E-rate Program is the “fifth-largest stream of federal funding for schools nationwide,” and were it to end, “school districts would need to pay for internet access with other funds, which could lead to staff reductions or cuts in other areas.”
The Trump Administration’s Federal Communications Commission review is considering ending the program entirely or limiting it to rural or lower-income areas.
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has based the E-Rate program review on the view or concern that kids are spending too much time on screens. At face value, that is nothing but Trump-speak. Managing computer screen time should be handled at the local level, not by government intervention.
What does this mean for the SBCISD? Without the same level of funding, schools and libraries could face higher internet costs, less support for rural and high-cost communities, and greater difficulty upgrading necessary building infrastructure, according to AASA.
Texas has nearly 9,800 public schools and libraries affected.
Educators say the internet does more than classroom teaching. It powers bus GPS routing, security cameras, building ventilation, and lunch records.
The San Benito CISD relies heavily on federal E-Rate discounts and receives up to an 87% to 90% discount on telecommunications and internal network connections. This means major cuts or the program’s complete elimination by the FCC would create severe financial and technological strain.
Because the district qualifies for high-tier poverty/need discounts (often 87% to 90%) through programs like the National School Lunch Program, losing these federal broadband subsidies could shift massive recurring network and internet costs directly onto local funding.
The district depends on E-Rate funding to manage firewalls, internal connections, and bandwidth required for digital learning platforms and daily campus operations.
According to the San Benito CISD ESC Region 12 E-Rate Funding Analysis: https://tinyurl.com/SB-CISD-Erate-Funding, the district uses its E-Rate subsidies primarily in two categories: Category 1 (Connectivity), which covers data transmission services and high-speed internet access to ensure reliable, high-bandwidth broadband across all San Benito CISD campuses.
Category 2 (Internal Infrastructure): The district routinely opens public competitive bids and issues requests for proposals (RFPs) for critical internal connections. This includes securing heavily subsidized network components, managed internal broadband services, and network security hardware like district-wide firewalls.
Without the federal discount, the San Benito CISD would face difficult choices between maintaining high-speed internet or cutting other vital technology and instructional services.
Internet access is not just about classroom instruction, email, or Google Docs. School Districts use the internet for school safety, building maintenance, security, basic administrative functions, and document digitization.
The agency is accepting public comments until Oct. 13, 2026, and will take them into account when it crafts a proposal.
You can submit public comments on the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) [FCC-26-41]—which explores whether the E-Rate program should be limited, restructured, or sunset—through the FCC Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS).
GOOGLE “HOW TO SUBMIT COMMENTS TO Ensuring Children’s Safe Use of Screens and E-Rate-Funded Services” for instructions on how to submit comments.