Click below to read AP reporter John Miller's full report on today's funding decision on the Idaho Education Network; he reports, "This agreement helps clear the way for adjournment of the 2010 session, possibly by early next week." In the AP story, Jason Kreizenbeck, Gov. Butch Otter's chief of staff, said the governor backs moves to revamp the network's oversight, including removing administrative oversight from Otter ally Mike Gwartney, head of his Department of Administration. In such a vast and rural state as Idaho, Kreizenbeck said, linking schools to expanded educational opportunities over a broadband Internet pipeline is too critical to allow political, legal and personal bickering to allow to unravel. "The important thing is, the Idaho Education Network moves forward," he told the AP.

Budget writers OK $3M installment for ed network
By JOHN MILLER, Associated Press Writer

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho budget writers backed revamping oversight of a $60 million statewide education broadband system, part of a compromise to fund the project after it became bogged down in a lawsuit and clash of personalities inside the state Capitol.

On Thursday, Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee budget writers voted 18-2 to spend the Idaho Education Network's next $3 million installment, a donation from the private J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation.

It's part of the Department of Administration's $60 million 2011 budget starting July 1.

Under the plan, the 13-member Idaho Education Network Program and Resource Advisory Council must bolster contract monitoring of the network; provide quarterly reports to lawmakers starting July 1; and scrutinize companies' efforts to connect schools over the network's "last mile" of telecommunication infrastructure for the best price.

The plan also foresees Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna becoming the council's sole chairman and dumping provisions that currently give administrative oversight of the network to the Department of Administration.

Mike Gwartney, director of the Department of Administration and a confidante of Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter, became a lightning rod after Sen. Dean Cameron, budget committee chairman, said he had refused to cooperate with lawmakers over this project.

"I think we've done the best we could to ensure that accountability and transparency," said Rep. Wendy Jaquet, D-Ketchum and a budget committee member.

This agreement helps clear the way for adjournment of the 2010 session, possibly by early next week.

After Thursday's vote, Otter's chief of staff, Jason Kreizenbeck, said the governor backs revamping the network's oversight, including removing administrative oversight of the network from Gwartney's agency.

In such a vast and rural state as Idaho, Kreizenbeck said, linking schools to expanded educational opportunities over a broadband Internet pipeline is too critical to allow political, legal and personal bickering to allow to unravel.

"The important thing is, the Idaho Education Network moves forward," he said.

The Idaho Education Network now connects 56 schools.

For instance, kids at Emmett High School are getting a Holocaust literature class from Weiser High School; students in Gooding can take live algebra classes from the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls — without leaving their campus.

But the initial efforts to build it have grown deeply divisive.

Qwest Communications Co. lobbied hard for the project, winning much of the work to connect local schools to the system. Then, in December, telecommunications company Syringa Networks, a consortium of 12 rural telephone companies, sued Idaho claiming it had been illegally excluded from the network's construction.

Earlier this month, local Internet providers in Coeur d'Alene, Moscow and Idaho Falls joined the fray by asking Idaho to delay spending the Albertson Foundation's $3 million, on grounds they could provide links to schools as effectively as Qwest's, but at a fraction of the cost.

Complicating matters, an intemperate mid-March e-mail from Otter's finance chief, Wayne Hammon, demanding budget writers approve the $3 million was leaked to the public. Hammon described the conflict between Gwartney and Cameron as "a personal war."

The governor stripped Hammon of his Idaho Education Network duties, but the implication was clear: Otter might veto any Idaho Education Network budget package that didn't include authority to spend the Albertson Foundation's cash.

Meanwhile, Idaho's intricate web of small-town ties are also in play: Cameron is from Rupert, hometown of Charlie Creason, a founding board member of Syringa. Cameron concedes his close ties to Creason have helped convince him that Syringa was unfairly cut out of the deal to build the network.

"We support the network," Cameron said. "Unfortunately, it's been clouded in this mist of garbage."

Teresa Luna, Gwartney's chief of staff, said the importance the network for students has been lost in the drama and conflict.

"If additional oversight gives the legislature a level of comfort that allows the IEN to move forward, we welcome that move," Luna said.

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On the Net: Department of Administration's Idaho Education Network, http://adm.idaho.gov/ien/

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

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