POINT PLEASANT — Mason County Schools will soon receive more than $300,000 in funding.

On May 28 Sen. Jay Rockefeller announced that additional schools and libraries across West Virginia are being awarded a total of $2,146,595 to assist students and members of the community with access to the Internet.

According to a news release, Rockefeller co-authored the E-Rate program, which has greatly increased Internet access by providing discounts on telecommunication services to schools and libraries. This funding reflects the fourth wave of funding with more to come soon.

“I have been fighting hard for many years to make sure that all students and communities in West Virginia — rich or poor, urban or rural — continue to receive the technology funding they need,” Rockefeller said in a news release. “As Chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, I believe up-to-date technology is critical in linking our students and community members to important resources locally and across the globe.”

Mason County will receive $300,668.12 of the funding. According to Greg Martin, directory of technology for Mason County Schools, the money will go is actually a reduction in bills, and will fund 70 percent of the schools upgrade to a higher bandwidth Internet.

“Internet costs the county between $380 to $1,000 depending on bandwidth. (The money) assists us to pay for Internet access for all the schools,” Martin said, adding that the money is part of the E-Rate program, which the county applies for each year.

According to Martin, Mason County Schools typically receive funding through the program, but will be getting more this year due to the upgrade of Internet bandwidth in all schools, which will take place over the summer. More bandwidth equals a faster connection speed, Martin said.

According to a news release, 13 years ago Rockefeller worked with his colleagues in the United States Senate to author the E-Rate program. This came at a time when only 14 percent of classrooms were connected to the Internet, and only five percent in disadvantaged schools were connected. According to the most recent survey published by the National Center for Education Statistics, the proportion of classrooms with Internet access has grown to 94 percent for all classrooms and 91 percent for disadvantaged classrooms nationwide.

Since the inception of the E-Rate program, West Virginia has received more than $106 million in funding, with more than $7 million this year, to help schools and libraries pay the cost of telecommunications, Internet access and internal connections.

A breakdown of West Virginia funding levels for each school and library is available at the Web site, www.sl.universalservice.org/funding.