K-20 Educational Telecommunications Network. Washington Dept. of Information Services. W ashington state faces unique challenges.
Education is one area where the difference between the regions is dramatically different.
In the past, when students relocated from one region to the other, or graduated from high school and moved on to one of the state's six universities, educators discovered the quality of education given to students was dramatically different. In some cases, the materials being taught weren't relevant or sufficient to ensure success beyond high school. Though K-12 schools were reluctant to coordinate their efforts to address this problem, the higher education institutions were concerned enough to do something about it. They wanted to use technology to connect to each other and share resources. The Legislature took a look at what they were doing and had some concerns about the fact that K-12 was falling so far behind.