Districts Save Big Without IEN

The data is in from most of Idaho’s school districts, and it appears that the state is seeing big savings now that the districts have found their own vendors for broadband services to replace the defunct Idaho Education Network, for which the state’s $60 million contract with two politically connected vendors was declared illegal. With 93 of 129 school districts reporting as of Friday, total costs now appear to be 21 percent less, and districts are getting more bandwidth. “The cost per megabit was cut nearly in half,” legislative budget analyst Robyn Lockett told legislative budget writers this morning/ Betsy Russell , Eye on Boise. More here .

Question: Is there a lesson to be learned here by state officials? Perhaps, local solutions are better than state ones?