Evan Marwell, right, founder and CEO of EducationSuperHighway, and Gov. Sam Brownback announce plans to invest as much as 00 million to expand and upgrade access to broadband internet connections to more Kansas schools over the next three years.

Topeka ? Gov. Sam Brownback announced a new initiative Tuesday aimed at bringing affordable high-speed internet access to every school in the state over the next three years.

The Kansas Connect and Learn Initiative will use as much as $100 million in federal and state utility funds, along with resources from a private philanthropic organization, to bring fiber-optic cable and broadband connectivity to an estimated 10-20 percent of Kansas schools that currently don’t have it.

“Unfortunately, 21st century learning is only available in schools where they have high-speed connectivity, and too many of Kansas’ students and schools don’t have the broadband they need and are being left on the wrong side of the K-12 digital divide,” said Evan Marwell, founder and CEO of the San Francisco-based EducationSuperHighway, which is spearheading the project.

Evan Marwell, right, founder and CEO of EducationSuperHighway, and Gov. Sam Brownback announce plans to invest as much as 00 million to expand and upgrade access to broadband internet connections to more Kansas schools over the next three years.

The initiative calls for using an estimated $10 million from the Kansas Universal Service Fund, which is managed by the Kansas Corporation Commission and comes from fees charged on customer telephone bills.

That money will be used as matching funds to draw down as much as $90 million from a similar federal pool of money commonly known as the E-Rate Program that helps fund internet connections for schools and libraries nationwide.

Marwell said his organization will provide technical support, at no cost, to identify schools and districts most in need of upgrades, and then to work with cable and phone companies and other internet service providers to develop specific plans for each district and building in the program.

Marwell founded EducationSuperHighway in 2012 as a charitable, nonprofit organization with the mission of upgrading internet access in every public school classroom in America. The organization is funded with private donations, and in 2014 reported a net asset value of about $6.4 million.

He is also owner of Shaka Capital, an investment management firm based in San Francisco.

Kansas Education Commissioner Randy Watson said about 90 percent of the school districts in Kansas already provide students with computer tablets, laptops or other devices to use in the classroom.

“What hampers that in some cases is the connectivity speed with which they’re able to access internet resources,” Watson said. “That’s what we’re trying to scale up here.”

Brownback said about 25 percent of the state’s school districts have reported that they do not believe they have adequate broadband capacity to support a full range of internet-based instruction. He said about 300 schools in Kansas, mainly in smaller towns and rural communities, still lack connection to fiber-optic networks.

“Ensuring that every classroom in our state has high-speed internet is the first essential step to enabling digital learning and unleashing the potential of our children to compete in the 21st century workforce,” Brownback said.

Marwell said the state and federal money will be used to pay for the up-front cost of bringing fiber-optic connection to schools and for upgrading bandwidth in schools that are already connected. He said districts are usually responsible for paying the ongoing cost of internet connections, although in some cases federal money can be used to subsidize that.

He estimated that between 10 and 20 percent of Kansas school districts need to be upgraded “either to get fiber to schools that don’t have it or to get more bandwidth so they can meet the needs of their students.”

The Lawrence school district is among those that already provide students with computer devices and it has broadband internet in all of its buildings, a project that was funded with a portion of the $92.5 million bond issue that voters approved in 2013.

But one issue that Lawrence officials had to confront in that effort was that students also need access to internet connections after school, at home or in other public places so they can do their homework.

Marwell said the Kansas Connect and Learn Initiative does not address that issue, but he said many districts and internet service providers have found creative ways to expand affordable access in rural areas and low-income neighborhoods.

“Some are putting (Wi-Fi) access on their school buses and then parking them in neighborhoods so that kids can have it,” he said. “But really what we are seeing is a lot of service providers stepping up to provide access at discounted rates in some cases for students.”