Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama on Thursday announced a new initiative led by the top executives of major U.S. corporations that seeks to improve education in science, technology, engineering and math. The nonprofit initiative, called Change the Equation, involves 100 chief executive officers and has $5 million in funding for its first year of operation, according to information provided by the White House.
“These are actually the kinds of things that 10 years from now, 20 years from now, we’re going to look back and say it really made a difference,” Obama said.
The initiative was founded by former astronaut Sally Ride, former Intel Chairman Craig Barrett, Xerox CEO Ursula Burns, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, and Eastman Kodak CEO Antonio Perez, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, according to the White House statement.