President Barack Obama is calling for an ambitious overhaul of the federal E-rate program, a step that many education and technology advocates have been urging for years to improve what they see as schools' badly out-of-date technological capabilities. The administration intends to ask the Federal Communications Commission to consider rechanneling and increasing funding through the program, which is derived from telecommunications fees, with the goal of giving 99 percent of the nation's schools access to high-speed broadband and wireless Internet within five years. Mr. Obama's plan, dubbed "ConnectED," also calls for the U.S. Department of Education to lead an effort, using existing federal funding, to boost teachers' skills in using classroom technology, widely regarded as a shortcoming for many of today's educators. The White House declares that its plan also will foster innovations and benefit schools in indirect ways, such as by encouraging more education technology companies to develop products focused on improving K-12 learning, as opposed to other technology tools.