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Senate Passes 'No Microsoft National Talent Strategy Goal Left Behind Act'
theodp writes: Microsoft is applauding the Senate's passage of the Every Child Achieves Act, a rewrite of the No Child Left Behind Act, saying the move will improve access to K-12 STEM learning nationwide. The legislation elevates Computer Science to a "core academic subject", opening the door to a number of funding opportunities. The major overhaul of the U.S. K-12 education system, adds Microsoft on the Issues, also "advances some of the goals outlined in Microsoft's National Talent Strategy," its "two-pronged" plan to increase K-12 CS education and tech immigration. Perhaps Microsoft is tackling the latter goal in under-the-radar White House visits with the leaders of Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us PAC, like this one, attended by Microsoft's William "It's Our Way Or the Canadian Highway" Kamela and FWD.us President Joe "Save Us From Just-Sort-of-OK US Workers" Green.
Although I believe kids should be exposed to STEM courses, forcing them into STEM fields where there is no interest is a recipe for disaster. Better to let kids dictate where their interest lies.
Also, this is more of the corporate drive to lower wages in STEM fields no different than them wanting more H1B slave labor. More people in a field than there are available jobs means the corporation can dictate wages and get concessions on benefits that they would not otherwise be able to command.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
They can't claim that they're starved for labor when they're terminating it left right and center... then importing labor that has to be trained by the people they're firing.
My attitude on the whole H1B visa thing is that you need to require that they pay them... lets say 20 percent more than the going rate for domestic labor of the same kind.
If they NEED the labor then they'll pay the 20 percent. If this is just about money then suddenly their insatiable interest in H1B will vanish.
Highly skilled and high demand labor will still get imported and that's good. That's great. And the 20 percent in that context won't matter.
But the importing of entry level techs?... that should stop.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Microsoft PC systems only? What about Macs, Linux, Android, other systems??? I fear MS has are more concerned about their own agendas, then they are about giving students a proper CS education!
I believe that Microsoft has contracts with some states that ONLY allow Microsoft based PC's to be used in schools.
For those confused by Theodp's typical rant on K-12 CS, FWD.us, Code.org, Microsoft, Bill and Melinda Gates, Zuckerburg, which the Slashdot editors have the poor judgement of posting, this link provides a summary of the new public school education bill that is set to replace the unpopular "No Child Left Behind" bill from the Bush administration.
Note that TFS self-referentially links to previous Theodp rants on Slashdot for reference (!) C'mon, Samzenpus.
Here is the relevant section about CS:
Redefining Core Subjects
One note of interest, is that the ECAA expands the definition of 'core academic subjects' which has historically included English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography. The updated definition now includes computer science, music, and physical education, and any other subject as determined by the state or local educational agency. This can be interpreted as a victory by those who have claimed that NCLB has precipitated the narrowing of curriculum leading to the elimination of the arts in some schools.
Note that music and phys ed were also added as "core academic subjects", along with computer science. States are also given the option of adding to the list of core subjects. Somehow I didn't see that in Theodp's summary, but he probably left it out so he'd have more room to add some more acronyms of organizations that vigilent Slashdotters need to oppose.
The lesson here: If you take Theodp's summary at face value and don't bother to do your own googling/ducking for the facts, Theodp will take you for a ride.
It's sure a win-win for corporations who want more H1-Bs to displace US workers.
For goodness sake, not another of theodp's anti-CS education posts! Please Slashdot, end the madness and stop posting this drivel. We seem to be getting a few of them per week, and most of them are nothing but snide insinuations and misrepresentations.
"I'm too busy to research this and form an educated opinion, but I do have time to tell everyone my uninformed opinion."
Geography is logically an extension of history and is covered in my list. Arts and foreign language are probably more important than computer science at the K-12 level. I'm really in favor of including all of these subjects, but there is a priority based on universal need for the knowledge, i.e. a critical path.
If you want to include computer science without deleting existing core subjects, it will cost more money and class time. Are you willing to pay more in taxes to support schools? Are you willing to extend the class day and academic year so there is time to teach all these subjects? I am willing to accept those changes but to add comp sci without those changes will be destructive.
"He took a duck in the face at 250 knots." -- William Gibson, Pattern Recognition
Arts and foreign language are probably more important than computer science at the K-12 level.
While I'm not saying you are wrong, but that is very arguable. I for instance think computer science is far more important than foreign language at any grade level. I computer science is less important than art for K-5, but more important than art after that. These are just my opinions, and I'm sure plenty of people and even researchers have different opinions in this discussion.
If you want to include computer science without deleting existing core subjects, it will cost more money and class time. Are you willing to pay more in taxes to support schools? Are you willing to extend the class day and academic year so there is time to teach all these subjects? I am willing to accept those changes but to add comp sci without those changes will be destructive.
Although I am a bad person to ask here, because I am very willing to pay more in taxes to support more schooling. Both longer days and longer school years. I happen to live in an area where our taxes provide over $20k per student to our primary and secondary schools, and once my kids are at school ages (11 months and -7 months now) they will likely have access to academic rigorous summer programs (which I'm happy to pay for).
Based on the total number of core classes now, I doubt including computer science would add more than 5% of coursework over a year. That comes to less than $100 in extra taxes per year per citizen.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
I really don't want to sound like an H-1B apologist, but I do understand at least partially where companies are coming from. This comes from being on both the worker side of the fence and the "influencing hiring decisions" side, as well as about 20 years' experience in IT. Some people end up doing incredibly well at a job despite the first impression they give, and others really disappoint after a great first impression.
I do think they're going about this "fix" the wrong way, but I can understand why a company would be reluctant to pull someone off the street that they didn't know already in today's hiring environment and just sort of hope they work out. In my experience, the problem is that there are lots of domestic talented people out there who just can't sell themselves to hiring managers. Either they can't write a resume to save their lives, or they interview very poorly. Conversely, the extroverted schmoozers and posers interview incredibly well, especially in front of the management making the hiring decisions. These guys end up getting the jobs, not performing as expected, and we get the "we can't find any domestic talent" meme. The other two strikes against domestic hires are the perceived wage premium, although it usually takes way more in consulting dollars to clean up offshored or H-1B messes, and the fact that there is the offshoring/outsourcing safety valve that allows companies to ignore the first problem (inability to identify and keep talented people.) Bring the wild west of "expert IT recruiters" in and it's a huge mess.
Techies would never even consider unionizing, but I think a professional guild is a way to combat this. Standardize training, and find a way to equitably weed out the empty suits from the really talented who just don't interview well. The problem is that the H-1B or outsourcing route has to be closed off enough to give domestic hiring a shot at working.