WASHINGTON – Another 173 schools and 65 libraries throughout the state will share more than $2.8 million in funding under the e-rate program, which U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., authored as part of the 1996 Telecommunications Act.

This is the first of several waves of funding that will be announced as part of the fourth year of e-rate funding for schools and libraries in Maine and nationally during the coming months. Since the program began in 1998, Maine has received more than $11.8 million in funds.

“Since the e-rate program began, it has helped to bring exciting new technologies to more than one million classrooms and libraries nationwide,” said Snowe, a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which wrote the telecommunications reform law.

The program provides discounts of between 20 and 90 percent to schools and libraries – depending on their resources and needs – for the cost of education technology, and current funding represents the discounts schools will receive for specific telecommunications services. The discounts cover the cost of telecommunications, Internet access, and internal connections needed to bring information directly into classrooms and libraries.