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The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was referred the bill (S. 136) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to provide supplemental funding and other services that are necessary to assist certain local school districts in the State of California in providing educational services for students attending schools located within Yosemite National Park, to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to adjust the boundaries of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and for other purposes, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with amendments and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass.

The goal of Section 254 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 is the "equality of affordable, comparably priced access to telecommunication services by schools, libraries, and hospitals regardless of geographic location." The purposes of this study were to provide decision support information to the Joint Board and Federal Communications Commission as they seek to implement that intent; to determine the range of prices charged for telecommunications services within, and among, states; and to test the utility of a proposed discount methodology, utilizing actual tariffed rates for selected school districts across the entire rural-urban continuum. Tariff data was collected from eight states--Florida, West Virginia, Nebraska, Maine, Missouri, Nevada, Texas, and Illinois. Tariffs were collected for the three largest carriers in each state and for three small independent carriers for which tariffs existed. Reported data were limited to 56k, T1, and DS3 services, for which 55 tariffs were collected. The T1 service shows the least differential between metro and nonmetro prices, being somewhat more costly for nonmetro districts. For 56k service, the average installation plus annual tariffed price is more costly for nonmetro districts. DS3 service is the most costly and least available of the services investigated, and is substantially more costly for nonmetro districts. In all cases, the proposed discount methodology appears to further equalize prices across all districts regardless of rural/urban factors. Eight summary findings are presented, and an appendix explains the concepts and delineation of the proposed discount methodology. (TD)