Obama upped the ante for his administration's commitment to putting more math and science teachers in the classroom, pledging another $250 million to improve STEM teacher preparation. The move augments an already promised $250 million as well as the hefty $700 million that flows through agencies like NASA and NSF for the same purpose.

With this new pledge, the administration seeks to prepare 10,000 new STEM teachers in five years and provide on-the-job training to 100,000 more. Among the new programs and expansions: UTeach will grow by $13.5 million and public ed schools will prepare 3,000 more teachers than previously planned. On board with the plan are organizations like the Intel Foundation, which will put $200 million into their 80-hour math course to better train elementary teachers over the next 10 years.