Governor M. Jodi Rell announced today that $5 million will soon be made available to continue linking Connecticut schools and libraries to the internet. The initiative, known as the Connecticut Education Network (CEN), aims to provide "knowledge at the speed of light" by linking all of Connecticut's public school districts, institutions of higher education and libraries to one another with a state of the art information technology infrastructure. It is the first state research and education network in the United States to provide fiber-optic connectivity to every school district and higher education campus.

The project is run out of the State's Department of Information Technology with key staffing and design support provided by the University of Connecticut. The network currently reaches 160 school districts and 40 higher education institutions.

"Six years ago, I set about to establish a new focus on preparing Connecticut's schools and libraries for the computer and information technology needs of the 21st century," Rell said. "It all begins with the building of telecommunications infrastructure associated with CEN followed by the wiring of schools for the internet. Today, we have a model network, and we continue to make our school buildings and libraries technologically-friendly learning environments."

KW