As part of his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, President Barack Obama thanked four tech firms — including Apple, Microsoft, Verizon and Sprint — for their involvement and support of his and the FCC’s ConnectED high-tech initiative, which aims to level the playing field for poorer districts by providing high-speed Internet access to all of America’s schools and students. Obama described the participation as a “down payment” on connecting schools and students over the next three years….