E-Rate has been around since passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.  Since the passage of the law, the federal government has disseminated over $25 billion in E-Rate subsidies to states.  Over the last decade or so, much of the E-Rate funding has been used to expand broadband Internet access in schools, largely based on the belief that reliable Internet access would lead to student test score gains.

To test this hypothesis, Thomas Hazlett, Ben Schwall, and Scott Wallsten examined the relationship between federal E-Rate subsidies and student performance in North Carolina.

Despite billion-dollar increases to the E-Rate program and Obama administration claims of the program’s efficacy, researchers concluded that “after controlling for endogeneity [spurious correlation due to selection bias], increasing the amount of E-Rate funding that schools receive has no real impact on SAT test scores.”  They continued,

The results are disappointing given that the $25 billion investment does not appear to have paid off. The disappointment in the lack of a return is intensified by two additional reasons. First, the subsidies are the result of 18.2% tax on certain telephone charges. In addition to the economic distortion created by the tax, this tax is worse than most due to its regressive nature—everyone pays the same percentage regardless of their means

Over the years, both Republicans and Democrats have championed the E-Rate program.  So, don’t blame Obama.  Blame Washington.