The Kan-ed initiative, which provides Internet access and research tools to Kansas schools, libraries and hospitals, is on the chopping block and local officials have mixed feelings about the impact a cut would have on Allen County.
Formed in 2001 to contract with communication providers to create an information-sharing network, Kan-ed has traditionally been funded at $10 million annually through the Kansas Universal Services Fund. During the 2011 Legislative Session, Kansas lawmakers slashed Kan-ed’s budget by 40 percent, resulting in a 50-percent cut in research tools provided to Kan-ed members via online databases.
With Kan-ed essentially providing two services — Internet connectivity and resource content — there is division about what the most vital part of the initiative is.
Roger Carswell, director of Iola Public Library, said for Iola’s library, schools and hospital, access to databases is the essential part of the service rather than its access to the Internet.
“Kan-ed provides a T-1 connection (1.5 megabits per second) for free but if you want a faster speed than that, the cost is very expensive and T-1 is regarded as sort of minimal,” Carswell said. “It’s not enough for us and not enough for most libraries.”
And it’s not enough for anybody else in Allen County either. Neither Allen County Hospital nor Humboldt or Iola school districts rely on Kan-ed broadband for their online capabilities, rather each contracts independently with local telecom providers.
“So, there’s been a need for Kan-ed to increase the connectivity that they provide but that also means the connection they provide, for some libraries, isn’t that important,” Carswell said.
What is important for Carswell and the library, as well as other Allen County learning hubs, he said, is the Kan-ed-provided content, like Heritage Quest, a genealogy reference tool, and Learning Express Library, a tool for job seekers looking for guidance on resume building and civil service entrance testing.
“With the economy the way it is today, that’s been a heavily used (database),” Carswell said.
The schools also use Kan-eds databases — like Thinkfinity, Career Pipeline and All Tech — for instruction and learning assistance. But those resource databases might not survive another year, said Kan-ed director Jerry Huff.
With Kan-ed content funding for this fiscal year cut in half and the rest set to be completely removed from the initiative’s repertoire by July 1, 2012, Huff said the legislature has made it clear their priority is in connectivity — not informational databases.
“There will be a reduced number of databases that will be provided at some point during this year, in all likelihood,” Huff said. “There is no funding budgeted for content starting July 1.”
The first wave of cuts cost Kan-ed-member libraries and schools student learning assistance programs like Tutor.com and Homework Kansas.
State Sen. Jeff King, Allen County’s representative to the legislature, said the entire Kan-ed review is about ensuring efficiency within all state agencies, and the needs of all Kansans will be taken into consideration before casting any vote on the Senate floor.
“We need to make sure, in this environment especially, that we are doing everything we can do to be as efficient as possible with our resources,” the Independence Republican said. “But we have to realize the value that internet connectivity brings to rural jails, rural hospitals, rural libraries and rural schools.”
King said he supports the Kan-ed Study Commission’s review of the possibility of meshing Kan-ed and KanREN (Kansas Research and Education Network), a nonprofit serving the Kansas higher education institutions, with the hopes of not duplicating services.
But Huff, who addressed the study commission in Topeka Oct. 27, said merging a government agency with a nonprofit isn’t a realistic pursuit. Rather, Kan-ed and KanREN are working on a plan to create a single, collaborative network, which both groups’ members would have access to. Meanwhile, Kan-ed and KanREN would continue to operate as individual entities.
At the legislature’s direction, Kan-ed would focus mostly on connectivity with little emphasis on content.
“I think connectivity is essential,” King said. “If you gave me the option of content or connectivity, certainly I’m going to say connectivity.”
The digital divide that could occur between rural and urban Kansas if Kan-ed quit providing broadband, the main driver of King’s concerns, is essentially the same knowledge gap that will exist between rural and urban libraries, Carswell said.
Without Kan-ed’s buying power, the databases and online resources offered now will be out of reach for libraries in smaller communities, he said.
“Every library could individually subscribe to any of these databases but libraries simply don’t have funding to pay for these databases,” Carswell said. “A lot of our libraries in southeast Kansas only have $1,000 or less for total materials purchases.”
Carswell said Kan-ed pays about $630,000 for license rights to a database vendor.
“If all Kansas libraries were to individually subscribe to that same vendor, the cost would be almost $25 million total,” he said. “Even if they stop buying books entirely, $500 isn’t going to pay for one of the databases.”
Gail Dunbar, curriculum director for USD 257, said teachers often use the tools Kan-ed offers to facilitate and guide instruction, a valuable resource in a time when tools seem to be harder and harder to get.
“It’s additional resources for their instruction,” she said. “If those things were no longer available, we would definitely miss those pieces. It’s just one more resource that will go away.”
But all hope is not lost for proponents of the content aspect of Kan-ed. Huff said members of the Kan-ed study committee expressed a desire for Kan-ed to continue offering the online resources to its member institutions.
“At the meeting last week, they all agreed that the content that we provided was of value and that other funding sources should be sought in order to continue funding content,” he said. “They didn’t say if it were another state agency or if it was through private donations, nobody had the answer.”
Learning tools threatened by Legislature
