Obama: All schools should have Internet

David Jackson | USA TODAY

President Obama found a new line Thursday to make the argument that all of the nation's schools should have high-speed Internet.

"In a country where we expect free Wi-Fi with our coffee, why shouldn't we have it in our schools?" Obama told students and faculty at a middle school in Mooresville, N.C.

Obama toured the school near Charlotte as part of his national jobs tour, and made the argument that the Internet can help teach students the skills needed to secure the work of the 21st century.

The president said he is directing federal regulators to help equip schools with broadband and high-speed Internet connections. The goal is to have 99% of the nation's students connected to super-fast Internet within five years, a project likely to cost billions of dollars.

Only 20% of U.S. students are connected to high-speed Internet, Obama said. In South Korea, a global economic competitor, 100% of the students are wired.

Obama said,: "We connected the world through the Internet, through our imagination. All these projects created jobs. All these projects grew our economy. They also unified the country, and they are unifying the world."