Pete Royer is the Director of the Little Crow Telemedia Network, a 12 school technology Cooperative with 7 associate members. He is also the Chair of the Minnesota Educational Technology Networks (METN). He has been working to get schools the technology they need to prepare students for a long time. He’s passionate about what he does and he has graciously agreed to let me share an email he sent to me recently.

He also added that they have been holding back on expanding Internet apps in the schoool – because they are worried about filling their pipes. I have three kids. It concerns me that we’re holding back anything that might help give our kids an edge for their future…

The K12 Telecom Coordinators are attempting to get schools broadband Internet fully funded. K12 schools can access Telecom Aid if they pass a few basic requirements. Currently there is more demand than money so the $3.5 mil needs to be prorated, currently at 43%. The Aid was originally aimed at rural schools who typically, if not always, had higher costs for similar sized bandwidth in the Metro.

There is a provision on the k12 House bill to increase the funding $5mil which would probably fully fund broadband Internet for a year. We do expect the need to surpass funding the following year even if funding were increased by $5 million. The Senate had no funds in this very important means to provide broadband to Minnesota Schools. The conference committee is trying to hammer this out but we need support to get this funded.

I am amazed at all the talk of getting broadband to the rural areas, yet this basic, rather inexpensive funding, which can allow schools to maintain broadband speeds at their local schools is not supported by ALL legislators. This is not some pie in the sky attempt to bring Broadband to the rural areas. This is a tried and true current application of broadband to all K12 schools with a decade long history of usage but not always a good solid funding source.

Telecom Aid supports Broadband to all k12 schools, metro, rural, big or small. To not fully fund Telecom Aid is to ignore the importance of Internet access to the 21st Century Educator, Student and School District. K12’s school rely on broadband to conduct regular instruction,  pay their bills, conduct state testing, send and receive classes, send and receive reports to MN Dept of Ed, etc. etc. etc. Many districts now offer 1-1, BYOD or other technology initiative

We NEED maintain Broadband at the K12 schools. We have it now but we need to have it fully funded and supported by the state as it is the foundation building block for almost everything we do now. We need a stable funding source for years to come so we can effectively plan Internet procurement and networking schematics in order to supply Internet for future needs.