The Federal Communications Commission has approved a new competitive bidding portal for the E-rate program that funds school internet connections, casting aside objections from education groups that the portal could be too burdensome and discourage schools and vendors from participating in the program.
Two members of the FCC on April 30 voted to approve the new system outright, while the third voted for it but with a partial dissenting view.
The plan is designed to address concerns about fraud and waste in the $3 billion annual program and will replace a system of self-certifications by participants based on state and local government procurement rules.
“The idea is straightforward: A bidding portal that facilitates open and transparent engagement will deter bad actors from engaging in misconduct during the bidding process,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, a Republican, said in support of his vote for the new system.
The change will bring “much needed transparency to the E-rate bidding process,” Carr added. “Instead of continuing to rely on self-certifications, we can rely on verifiable data.”
Numerous education groups and school districts, led by the Schools, Health, and Libraries Broadband (SHLB) Coalition; the Consortium for School Networking; and AASA, the School Superintendents Association, had lobbied against the online bidding system.
“We believe this is unnecessary and burdensome to the program,” Joey Wender, the executive director of the SHLB Coalition, said in an interview. “The FCC is creating a separate and additional hoop for applicants and vendors to jump through on the federal level. … I view this as a solution in search of a problem.”
Noelle Ellerson Ng, the chief advocacy and governance officer for AASA, said in a statement that the new portal requirement “will hit small and rural schools and libraries the hardest, and is likely to reduce participation in a program that is already well‑run and critically important.”
The groups cited a 2025 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office that concluded the E-rate program met nine requirements and best practices to oversee and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse in federal funding awards.
“Given the GAO’s recent exemplary assessment of current E-rate mechanisms to safeguard program integrity, we question why the Commission now seeks to pursue a dramatic and overly complex overhaul of the program, the coalition said in its April 23 letter to the FCC.
Commissioners cite inspector general recommendations
Carr, the FCC chairman, cited recommendations by his agency’s inspector general going back to 2017 that call for the creation of an online bid repository that would require telecom providers to bid in a transparent manner.
Commissioner Olivia Trusty, a Republican who, like Carr, was appointed by President Donald Trump, noted in her statement that an earlier GAO report “identified the need for improvements to E-rate program integrity following elevated levels of improper payments” over several years.
Commissioner Anna M. Gomez, a Democrat appointed by President Joe Biden, said she was voting to approve the new portal in part and dissent in part. She said the measure includes stronger oversight and administrative improvements that she supports, but “it goes far beyond the IG’s recommendations, which merely called for the creation of a simple bid repository.”
“The communities most at risk of being burdened by a more complex filing process are the same ones E-rate was built to reach,” she said, including schools in tribal communities and underfunded districts without dedicated E-rate staff or money to hire consultants.
The online bidding portal won’t be in place until the funding year 2028 competitive bidding cycle, which begins July 1, 2027. It will require prospective service providers to, upload bid evaluations and other documentation, and contracts to the portal, the FCC said.
The SHLB Coalition is holding a free webinar on June 3 to discuss the FCC decision and what it means for E-rate program participants.
