Gov. Butch Otter, who is recovering from hip replacement surgery, spoke by phone to his newly convened IEN Working Group this afternoon, urging it to come up with a solution to the legal and financial mess surrounding the Idaho Education Network before the end of this year’s legislative session. He urged lawmakers to find a way to “good, solid funding … so that we’re not in a ‘mother may I’ position with the federal government.” Otter also praised the IEN, saying, “There’s no limit to our potential in using this.”

Former Sen. John Goedde, Otter’s aide and the head of the working group, then announced that he was kicking the press out of the meeting, “because we’ve got a legal situation and an open bid.” The working group then convened in executive session behind closed doors; Goedde said he expected that portion of the meeting to take about an hour.

Otter, in his comments to the panel, urged it to think of the IEN as a resource that can reach beyond education, urged the members to “think outside the box.”