Some of those leaders include companies that have already promised support for the President's educational initiatives. Apple, Cartoon Network, Code.org, Facebook, Microsoft, Salesforce and Qualcomm are all widening their education efforts, investing in programs or both to help improve computer science in the country.

Throwing cash at a problem won't make it go away, of course, and there aren't any guarantees that the money will make a difference. However, the effort at least tackles one of the core issues head-on: getting computer science into schools in the first place. Roughly three quarters of schools go without any CS programs, and 22 states don't accept these classes as credit toward a high school diploma. If the extra funding works as planned, it'll get CS courses into more schools and help create a generation of kids that know how to code before they reach college.