A couple of weeks ago Rep. Marc Rhodes of Newton introduced a bill (HB 2390) that would abolish the Kan-Ed program and leave Kansas as the only state in the nation without a statewide educational broadband network. Kan-Ed provides connections for hundreds of Kansas hospitals, libraries and schools in addition to hundreds of thousands of individuals.
It was created by the 2001 Legislature and is administered by the Kansas Board of Regents, so Dr. Andy Tompkins, president and CEO of the Regents, testified against destroying Kan-Ed on Wednesday before the House General Government Committee. Before his testimony, representatives of hospitals, colleges, libraries and other beneficiaries of the network across Kansas also pleaded for Kan-Ed’s continuance.
What’s in it for Allen County? Plenty. Over the last few years a total of $185,708.98 in direct broadband aid has been received through Kan-Ed by the schools and libraries in the county. The largest beneficiary was Allen County Community College, which received $79,292 in direct aid. If there had been no Kan-Ed the services paid for with Kan-Ed grants would have had to be paid for with tax-generated funds — or, in some cases, might not have been afforded. Perhaps the city would not have provided the $12,954 that the Iola Public Library received to subsidize its broadband connection.
As Dr. Tompkins told the committee, Kan-Ed is a non-profit that works with over 20 private telecom and cable providers “to facilitate the public-private partnerships and collaboration necessary to provide this statewide connectivity. Kan-Ed provides video-conferencing technology that is utilized to connect local and state leaders with their counterparts across the state, nation and globe, assists in providing distance learning services in school districts, provides educational and research databases to libraries, provides critical services to hospitals, facilitates telemedicine activities and provides homework tutorial services to students at all educational levels.”
DOING ALL THIS must cost the state a ton, right?
Wrong.
Kan-Ed is funded entirely through the Kansas Universal Service Fund which is generated through an assessment on phone bills. Not a dime of tax money involved. So doing away with Kan-Ed wouldn’t reduce the state deficit or help state finances in any other way — other than to increase costs at the Regents universities, the regional library systems and the other state institutions which benefit from those dollars now.
But Kansans would benefit because the levy on the phone bills would go away, wouldn’t it. Not exactly. Phone customers (you and me) would still kick in that levy every month. But instead of going to the Board of Regents to administer the Kan-Ed program, it would go to those private providers, such as Cox Cable.
The effect would be to turn the present non-profit state program into a for-profit system that would provide more profits for the cable companies — which are doing very well without that help — and cost the general public more for the same services Kan-Ed now provides.
Ironically, HB 2390 does nothing to shrink government. It still uses the clout of the state to require telephone users to pay into the Kansas Universal Service Fund. It just uses the money to benefit the very prosperous cable industry rather than provide broadband services to the schools, libraries and health care facilities that serve the public and are almost exclusively non-profit organizations.
Rep. Rhodes is, in short, grubbing for money for big business at the expense of all of the rest of us. Shame on him.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
