What started as a Pennsylvania effort is now national. The Pennsylvania Digital Trust Hub has partnered with AASA, The School Superintendents Association, and the Association of Educational Service Agencies (AESA) to launch erate.aasa.org. The site shows what E-Rate means for schools and libraries in every state, and it gives educators a tool to tell the FCC in their own words.
Allegheny Intermediate Unit built the site, applying the same data-driven approach behind the Pennsylvania E-Rate site to the whole country.
The national picture, community by community
E-Rate committed $13.2 billion to America’s schools and libraries in funding years 2021 through 2025, about $2.6 billion every year. That funding reached nearly 25,000 applicants in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and communities in 3,174 of the nation’s 3,235 counties.
An interactive national map attributes every dollar to the county and school district it serves, drawn directly from USAC’s public data, so any superintendent, board member or legislator can see local impact at a glance.
An FCC comment builder, not a form letter
The FCC weighs individual, evidence-based comments far more heavily than identical form letters. The site’s comment builder helps educators write their own:
- It grounds each letter in the writer’s own community’s E-Rate figures.
- It keeps the writer’s own words and role at the center.
- It takes about five minutes and exports to Word for final editing before filing.
- It assembles the letter entirely in the browser: no account, no sign-in, and nothing the writer types is sent anywhere.
The same tool helps educators write to their own members of Congress, and the site links to a congressional call to action powered by AASA and AESA’s partners at SHLB and CoSN.
Comments are due October 13, 2026 in WC Docket No. 26-133.