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I am teaching this curriculum right now (as a volunteer for https://www.tealsk12.org/ ) and I can tell you that 90% of our time is spent teaching coding, either HTML or CSS. We wrap the fluff stuff into the curriculum to break up the harder stuff.

The point of this class is to teach basic programming skills and computer concepts so that the regular AP CS class in Java (which I also teach) isn't such a culture shock. Kids drop out of that class at a very high rate and they are trying to give a sanctioned path to learning the real stuff. The regular class was very similar to my first semester CS class in content.

That's $4.46 per hour.

It's not a salary, it's a stipend. Intended to cover the costs incurred by the volunteers. Clue is even in the URL and mentioned multiple times on the website:
http://www.tealsk12.org/ volunteers/FAQ/

There's much more than that in the teals website. Those are the "exciting" technologies students will learn about in their field trips:

- C# – build apps for 2.2 billion devices
- Microsoft Bing
- Microsoft Developer Evangelism
- Microsoft Cortana
- Surface

2014 site

Not to mention pushing Microsoft development tools and technologies.

No, it is about teaching computer science and pretty much anybody in the industry can volunteer to be a part of it. But you saw "Microsoft" and immediately projected your own bias rather than actually doing any research or educating yourself about it didn't you. So from the TEALS site:

What’s the curriculum?
Our partner schools select from two TEALS courses: Intro CS (“Introduction to Computer Science Principles”) and AP CS A (“Introduction to Java Programming”).

Intro to CS uses Berkeley's Snap! visual programming language to teach CS fundamentals, not Microsoft tools.

Introduction to Java Programming? That doesn't sound very Microsoft does it. It's actually based on a text from Washington University.

Seriously it's all on the website, instead of being an ignorant naysayer spreading FUD you could actually contribute.

From the TEALS Volunteer FAQ: Is TEALS a Microsoft program? Yes, TEALS operates as a citizenship project within Microsoft. Microsoft is a huge supporter of computer science education, and provides most of the funding for TEALS.

TEALS (Technology Education And Literacy in Schools) is a grassroots employee driven program that recruits, mentors, and places high tech professionals who are passionate about digital literacy and computer science education into high school classes as part-time teachers in a team teaching model where the school district is unable to meet their students’ computer science (CS) needs on its own. TEALS works with committed partner schools and classroom teachers to eventually hand off the CS courses to the classroom teachers. The school will then be able to maintain and grow a sustainable CS program on their own. http://www.tealsk12.org/

Have you been involved in the hiring process for GOOG, MSFT, Facebook, or AAPL?

I have.

We (Microsoft) throw a LOT of money at people we're trying to bring on board. I have to assume our competitors are doing the same -- because we lose (and gain) talent from GOOG all the time as people move back and forth between companies.

If you make it through my interview loops, you won't have to worry about your starting salary being high enough. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised when you see your offer package. I know I was.

H1B isn't a wage suppression mechanism at Microsoft. It's a way to try and increase the size of the talent pool that we get to look at. I talk to a lot of people who are qualified on paper but who don't meet the hiring bar for various reasons. It costs us a ton of time (e.g. money) to interview people who we end up not being able to hire.

We need more qualified people and the US isn't producing them fast enough domestically.

Being good -- truly good -- at STEM has always paid well. There are other things that pay better (Wallstreet is a tough competitor), but if you are exceptional, the big players will open the checkbook.

I wish the recent Oracle story hadn't happened -- because it really undermines the credibility of the whole industry.

Fwiw, I (and Microsoft more broadly) am trying to play a role in improving American STEM educational outcomes. I volunteer to teach highschool computer science at the crack of dawn before heading into the office. Check out the TEALS program at http://tealsk12.org./ If you're passionate about improving the American labor force's competitiveness, see if there's a way that you can get yourself or your school district to participate.

This isn't an "either-or" situation. We can import top level talent from around the world to improve the American labor force, and we can also try to make the native-born labor force more competitive. But the latter is a long-lead effort, and the talent shortage is real _right now_.

And, if we're going to be nationalistic about things; here's my bit of nationalism: I want every foreign born great engineer possible working on harmless software in the US, instead of working on the nuclear or space programs of whatever places they come from.