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Obama Calls For $4B 'Computer Science For All' Program For K-12 Schools (washingtonpost.com)

Posted by timothy on from the master-plan dept.

Etherwalk writes: President Obama plans to announce a four billion dollar computer science initiative for K-12 schools, where fewer than 15 percent of American high schools offer Advanced Placement (i.e. college 101) Computer Science courses. This is still very much open to negotiation with Congress, because it is part of a budget request from the President. So write your Congressman if you support it. The $4 billion would be doled out over a period of three years to any state that applies for the funds and has a well-designed plan to expand access to computer science courses, especially for girls and minorities.

4 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. Why not "Cooking for All"? by UsuallyReasonable · · Score: 5, Insightful

    After all, everybody eats. Not everyone is a programmer.

    1. Re:Why not "Cooking for All"? by UsuallyReasonable · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Do kids not take Home Ec anymore? I took it. I still cook and sew to this day. But by all means, shoot down programming for everyone. The rest of the world is leaving the US behind. Let's help them do it faster.

      Money is a scarce resource, and it strikes me as idiotic in the extreme to think that we should spend money on the brainless notion that "everyone" should be a programmer. And if you're really worried about the world "leaving the US behind", one area in which they are certainly doing so is in not being fat. Maybe if people learned to cook, instead of consuming Happy Meals, we could compete on that front, eh?

  2. And what good will it do? by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I weep for those 4 billions. What good we could have done with it, how many ivory back scratcher could have been bought...

    Don't get me wrong. I am all for teaching as many people as possible how to create code for computers. The problem is that very, very few people have the required mindset to do so. Yes, with current RAD tools pretty much anyone can create some kinda code that sorta works. Personally, I call this development "total job security for the foreseeable future".

    Why?

    Because I'm in Infosec.

    The amount of cargo-cult programming is stunning already. And with kids who don't give half a shit about programming, this is going to get worse. Especially when you make those kids think they can when in fact they can't. Remember the old saying: Those who can do, those who can't teach. And now ponder what greatness will come out of this.

    No. Sorry. Programming is something you have to want to do if you want to do it right. And let's be blunt here, code that's just plainly WRONG, we already have enough of.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. It would be more useful.... by MetricT · · Score: 1, Insightful

    ... to just take that $4 billion, and cut a "bonus" check to every IT worker in America.

    The problem isn't that women don't know how to program as well as men, it's that the field just isn't as attractive to them. Woman tend to value job stability over income, and it's hard to find that kind of stability in IT. IT requires a lot of brains, a lot of hard work, isn't very social, has a lot of guys with behavioral issues, and their job might get outsourced to India so the MBA middle manager can get his quarterly bonus and afford some more blow.

    IT and the medical field require similar levels of intelligence and work, yet medical jobs don't often get outsourced to China, the demand for medical skills is relatively constant, and while there are behavioral issues, they usually fall along the Doogie Howser Dipshit Doc/Nurse axis rather than the male/female axis.

    Do you want to attract women to IT? The best way to do it would be to change it in ways which also make it more attractive to men too: 40 hour work weeks, reasonable pay for the work/brainpower involved, job security, etc.