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Senate advances $300,000 for EdNet maintenance; lawmakers debate long-term funding
Summary
Senate votes to advance Senate Bill 16, a $300,000 appropriation to maintain the EdNet telecommunications system (KUED/University of Utah) serving public education; senators discussed whether one-time technology funding is appropriate for ongoing maintenance.
Senators on Jan. 17 advanced Senate Bill 16, a measure to appropriate $300,000 to sustain EdNet, the statewide educational telecommunications network run through KUED and the University of Utah.
Sponsor Senator Dixie Levitt said EdNet provides instructional and informational programming statewide — to public schools, applied-technology centers and institutions of higher education — and described the system’s need for ongoing maintenance of mountaintop facilities and transmitters. "This bill will appropriate $300,000 for that purpose," Levitt said, noting prior maintenance had been covered by a mix of one-time funds.
Several senators questioned the source of the appropriation and whether the governor’s budget included it; Levitt said the funding was not in the governor’s budget and described the appropriation as an additional, ongoing need. Senator McAllister and others pressed whether state funding would simply replace one-time grants and whether those prior funds would be redeployed elsewhere; Levitt replied the appropriation was intended to preserve existing connections and that a combination of state appropriations and continued grant-seeking would be used going forward.
Senators called the question, and SB16 was placed on the third-reading calendar with a recorded tally showing 22 ayes and no nays.
Sponsors emphasized the program’s cross‑sector support — from the Board of Regents and State Board of Education to telephone companies — and said failure to fund maintenance could jeopardize existing sites and connections.
