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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.

7 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 dfn5 · · Score: 3, Informative

      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.

      --
      -- Thou hast strayed far from the path of the Avatar.
    2. Re:Why not "Cooking for All"? by Etcetera · · Score: 3, Informative

      Do kids not take Home Ec anymore?

      No, they don't. That wasn't offered for much of the 90's (at least in San Diego, CA) and whatever was left was dismantled in the 2000's.

      There's a Regional Occupation Program that still provides a path for shop/trades, but I don't believe that's resulted in Home Ec coming back.

      Besides, nowadays it'd probably be considered sexist somehow, no matter what the gender ration was.

      --
      Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
    3. 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. Well Played, Microsoft! by theodp · · Score: 4, Informative

    Think Tanks: How a Bill [Gates Agenda] Becomes a Law: In 2012, the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings hosted a forum on STEM education and immigration reforms, where fabricating a crisis was discussed as a strategy to succeed with Microsoft's agenda after earlier lobbying attempts by Bill Gates and Microsoft had failed. "So, Brad [Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith]," asked the Brookings Institution's Darrell West at the event, "you're the only [one] who mentioned this topic of making the problem bigger. So, we galvanize action by really producing a crisis, I take it?" "Yeah," Smith replied (video). And, with the help of nonprofit organizations like Code.org and FWD.us that were founded shortly thereafter, a national K-12 CS and tech immigration crisis was indeed created.

    Microsoft supports White House initiative to expand access to computer science: " Microsoft is one of many companies in the tech sector that is committed to this effort [said Microsoft President Brad Smith]. In addition to our business initiatives, those of us who are involved in philanthropy, including such groups as Code.org, will do more. The private sector and philanthropy cannot fill this gap without public funding. And if we're going to accelerate progress as a nation, we need federal funding. That's why today's proposal is so important. It can provide the accelerant to help more states and school districts progress more quickly."

  4. Re:What a retarded concept by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Interesting

    While that's true, computer science is a good way to teach problem solving skills that are going to be useful no matter what you do.

    I don't think they need to go too in depth. Just give the kids some guidance and turn them loose with Scratch or something similar where they can be creative. You're not going to turn everyone into a programmer, but you might get a few more kids interested who might otherwise not be.