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US #FCC Fines School Management Firm $4.5Mln For Rigging Internet Service Contracts ( #ERATE )


WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 04th November, 2020)


Concept Schools, a company that manages charter schools in three US states, agreed to pay $4.5 million to settle charges it awarded contracts for discount internet service without a competitive bidding process, the Justice Department said in a press release on Tuesday.


"The United States alleged that Concept Schools, a charter school management company located in Des Plaines, Illinois, rigged the bidding for E-Rate contracts between 2009 and 2012 in favor of chosen technology vendors so that its network of charter schools located in several states, including Illinois, Ohio and Indiana, selected the chosen vendors without a meaningful, fair and open bidding process," the release said.


The company also chose internet equipment vendors that charged higher prices than those approved by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the program that targets schools and libraries in low income neighborhoods, the release also said.

The E-Rate Program, created by Congress in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, subsidizes eligible equipment and services to make on-line access more affordable for needy public schools and libraries, the release added.


The $4.5 million penalty resolves charges without determining liability, according to the release.


Charter schools are publicly funded but allowed to operate independent of local public education bureaucracies.

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