President Obama announced that leaders in the tech industry have pledged $750 million towards bolstering the access students have to technology.

President Obama said that he wanted to make it so that in 5 years 99% of students have better technological acess. “Today the average American school has about the same Internet bandwidth as the average American home, but it serves 200 times as many people,” he said, and added that not enough schools have access to 21st century level technology.

Among the participating companies are those like Microsoft as well as Verizon, who have promised to provide high-speed Internet in schools, and also things like laptops and tablets. Sprint has promised to give Internet access to 50,000 students who are less-privileged, and Apple has said that they will send $100 million dollars worth of Macbooks, iPads and some of their other products to schools that are disadvantaged. Several other companies have pledged to help as well.

“I’m only standing here today because my education gave me a chance. I’m not so different than a lot of these young people,” he said, and added that he is willing to use his executive powers if Congress won’t help him out on this. “This is something we can do without waiting for Congress.”

[via The New York Times, image via MDGovpics’s flickr]