Massachusetts Embraces Philanthropy-Funded K-12 CS Education

theodp writes: The Boston Globe reports that after more than two years of lobbying, the Massachusetts Computing Attainment Network (MassCAN) — an advocacy group comprised of Boston-area execs from Google, Microsoft, and other large tech companies — will use $1.5 million of state money and another $1.5 million in matching MassCAN funds to train teachers in computer science instruction and to lobby more school districts to introduce the lessons. The move comes two months after the State of Washington embraced philanthropy-funded K-12 CS education after being cajoled to do so by Microsoft and tech-bankrolled Code.org. "Computing isn't introduced in certain schools at all, or it's introduced very late in the educational experience — and computer science is a very difficult thing to learn later in life," said Steve Vinter, director of Google's Cambridge office and the head of MassCAN. Vinter acknowledged that MassCAN's campaign is driven in part by self-interest: Google and other companies are worried about a lack of programmers and developers that are highly in demand in the booming MA tech industry.