Utah Education and Telehealth Network asks Legislature to fund statewide conferencing, boost cybersecurity and classroom software

The Utah Education and Telehealth Network asked the Transportation Infrastructure Appropriations Subcommittee on Jan. 24 for funding to cover statewide video‑conferencing licenses, add cybersecurity staff serving technical colleges and buy additional instructional software for classrooms.

UETN Executive Director Spencer Jenkins told the panel the network provides Internet, video conferencing and telehealth connectivity to K‑12 districts, higher education, tech colleges, hundreds of libraries and more than 70 telehealth sites. "We are what we call a lease‑based network," Jenkins said. He said UETN contracts with private providers and UDOT for fiber routes and that traffic on the network is growing ‘‘roughly 20% each year.’’

The request includes a proposal to hold enterprise licensing with a specific vendor so all public and higher education institutions could use one statewide license. Jenkins said state procurement and combining K‑12 with higher education volume reduces the per‑seat cost. He described the proposal as UETN’s top priority and called it an attempt to lower per‑seat pricing by negotiating one enterprise agreement for the entire education enterprise. In describing scale, he said the statewide program would cover on the order of 67,000 seats across K‑12 and higher education.

Why it matters: UETN said combining institutional purchases could cut per‑seat costs; Jenkins also argued statewide licensing would simplify local purchasing and provide uniform tools for distance learning, concurrent enrollment, and rural access to advanced classes.

Budget and requests: Jenkins reviewed UETN’s financial snapshot during the presentation. The transcript records an agency base budget figure of about $69,600,000 for FY26 and references $881,000 from the general fund and a large share coming from an "income tax" account (a figure of about $35,000,000 was cited during the overview). Earlier in the session staff referenced a UETN request described in administrative materials as $4,800,000 from the income tax fund and $1,500,000 from a public/restricted account (totaling $6,460,000) for video conferencing software for K‑12, tech colleges and higher education. Jenkins later described the highest‑priority request as an ongoing funding request of roughly "2.154 $1,000,000" in the transcript (the recording is unclear on the printed figure) and said the governor’s proposal would cover three years of licensing; he said UETN’s preference is an ongoing appropriation.

Cybersecurity and district audits: The panel pressed UETN on student safety and content filtering. Representative Ivory asked whether the network can address access to pornographic or indecent content. Jason Strait, identified as UETN vice chair and a K‑12 regional service director, replied that filtering and federal privacy laws are implemented at the local education agency level and that LEAs maintain active filters on school networks. Strait said many districts block VPNs and that LEAs run logs and audits to detect circumvention. Jenkins added that smaller districts may lack resources to audit and act on logs and that UETN can provide technical support and help standardize cybersecurity practice but does not want to supplant districts’ roles on student discipline or policy. "We can be a support technologically speaking and technically to help them fill those gaps on the technical side," Jenkins said.

Senator Reidy told the committee her district recently experienced a large cyber incident she described as compromising personal information of about 400,000 students, employees and staff. She urged the committee to support additional cybersecurity funding. Jenkins said UETN has completed a statewide assessment of cybersecurity posture for K‑12 and higher education and is discussing ways to standardize processes and provide additional support.

Instructional software and other services: Jenkins also requested funding for additional instructional software such as Nearpod (which he described as a curriculum‑building tool that packages multiple media sources into lessons), and said UETN offers free professional development in ed‑tech to many administrators and teachers across the state.

Committee questions and usage metrics: Committee members asked about vendor selection criteria and utilization metrics. Jenkins said UETN focuses on “infrastructure” software that functions as a backbone across education (Canvas, Zoom) and monitors whether a majority of districts use a tool and how many seats are actively utilized. He cited a recent approach to AI tools where UETN negotiated statewide pricing but left adoption and payment to districts for a testing period.

What the record shows and next steps: UETN presented three main requests to the subcommittee: (1) statewide video‑conferencing licensing; (2) two cybersecurity staff to audit and support technical colleges (with some added capacity for K‑12 audits); and (3) additional instructional software licenses (Nearpod and similar tools). The transcript shows discussion but no final action or vote on those requests during the Jan. 24 meeting.

Bottom line: UETN framed the proposals as cost‑saving at scale and as a way to strengthen cybersecurity and classroom tools across rural and urban districts. Legislators pressed UETN on auditing, implementation metrics and whether statewide purchases would be equitable for districts with differing usage patterns. Several legislators asked UETN to provide further utilization metrics and a clearer reconciliation of the different dollar figures cited in the materials.