Internet service to schools closes

CAMBRIDGE – The Massachusetts Corporation for Educational Telecommunications, a quasi public agency that supplies Internet services for schools throughout the state, has closed and laid off 41 employees. The agency blamed the Massachusetts Legislature’s four-month budget deadlock for the action. The action will jeopardize more than $500,000 in annual federal subsidies for Internet access for 40 school districts, primarily in rural areas, the Globe reported. The shutdown will also affect a program that the agency manages for discount purchases of educational technology, a program involving more than $100 million in purchases since 1997, as well as an assortment of distance learning projects.