State officials must now scramble to come up with money to keep running the massive network that links up all 67 school districts in Florida since state funding runs out at the end of January. But while money could be found to keep the service available for the rest of this school year, there are questions as to how Florida will keep paying for Internet access and whether school districts may be forced to pay for it. Federal officials have now twice rejected state requests for assistance because Education Commissioner Jim Horne and the state technology office under Gov. Jeb Bush decided earlier this year to privatize the massive network that connects 3,700 schools to the Internet.
In January, the state signed a five-year contract to hand over the network and the employees who maintained it to a Tallahassee company whose main lobbyist is a former campaign manager for Bush. Hayes E-Government Resource Inc. took over the network this past summer.
But federal authorities in August and again on Nov. 19 turned down Florida's request for money because of the way the state awarded the contract to Hayes. The lobbyist for Hayes, which is also in a legal dispute over a contract it has with the Florida House of Representatives, is J.M. "Mac" Stipanovich. Florida could appeal this latest decision to the Federal Communications Commission, whose members are nominated by the president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
But first state officials must figure out how to pay Hayes since the federal money covered more than half of the price of the contract. The state contract with Hayes says that the contract can be terminated if Florida does not receive federal assistance -- but that would require shutting down Internet service to the state's public schools.
A Department of Education spokeswoman said no decision has been made regarding whether Florida would appeal to the FCC. But Frances Marine said the state would not shut down the Internet network that also provides e-mail service for teachers and principals.
"It's a priority to the governor and the commissioner that students have access to the Internet," Marine said.
The federal money that Florida is seeking comes from a tax collected on phone bills. Money collected from this tax is used primarily to provide subsidized phone service to the poor and help provide help for telecommunications and Internet service for schools and libraries.
Florida lawmakers put aside $5.6 million in state money to help pay for the Internet network used by schools -- also known as the Florida Information Resource Network. The rest was supposed to come from the Universal Service Administrative Co., the non-profit corporation established to distribute $2.25 billion a year to schools and libraries.
The USAC has turned down Florida's request for $7.63 million because their officials concluded that Florida had not followed FCC rules in awarding the contract to Hayes. Those rules require that the price of the contract be the "primary factor" used in selecting a vendor. Marine said that DOE planned to ask legislators to consider a budget amendment in mid-January that would transfer other state money and unused federal money from previous years to keep the service operating until June.
Marine said no decision has been made as to how to pay for Internet access to schools beyond this year. One alternative, she said, would be to re-bid the contract that the state awarded to Hayes.
One leading state lawmaker said she would ask Horne and DOE to testify before a Senate committee as to why the agency decided to privatize Florida's Internet network for schools. "It would be irresponsible of DOE to put school districts in the position of losing their ability to educate children with technology," said Sen. Lisa Carlton, R-Osprey.
She said lawmakers could use other state money to cover the cost of the Internet service.
Figures included in the Hayes contract show the service could cost Manatee County as much as $437,500 a year, $449,550 a year for Sarasota County and $31,835 for Charlotte County.
Quelle: Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 26.11.2003
