Former Senate President Pro-Tem Bob Geddes, now director of the state Department of Administration, told the Legislature’s school broadband access study committee today that the Legislature’s vision over the years went beyond a network providing broadband service to schools with the Idaho Education Network. “We wanted a system that provided high-bandwidth network to replace some of the infrastructure we had that was supporting state agencies,” he said. “A little bit more broad than just focusing on schools and libraries, it was going to allow private industry to access that, it was going to allow private citizens to be more closely connected with the legislative procedures and processes. We thought that we could develop things such as telemedicine that would help our citizens in rural communities have better access to the care that they need. We thought it could even be a tool to promote and inspire economic development. Well, I think it still can.”

Geddes said Idaho’s made great advances in providing technology to its schools. “What we have so far has been measured to be a great success,” he said. “Every representative from a school district (who’s addressed lawmakers today – there have been four) has indicated just how dependent they are on that technology.”