Top Silicon Valley Execs and Others Urge Congress To Fund K-12 Computer Science Education (techcrunch.com)

An anonymous reader shares a TechCrunch report:Some of the biggest names in tech and corporate America, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, have teamed up with governors and educators to ask Congress to provide $250 million in federal funding to school districts in order to give every single K-12 student in the nation an opportunity to learn how to code. On the legislative side, these tech CEOs are joined by governors from both sides, including California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R). Earlier this year, President Barack Obama called for more than $4 billion in funding for states, and $100 million for districts in order to bring computer science curricula to every single K-12 student in the country. What this group of CEOs, governors and educators is asking for today is different. They're saying that this issue can be addressed without growing the federal budget. The petition reads:Not only does computer science provide every student foundational knowledge, it also leads to the highest-paying, fastest-growing jobs in the U.S. economy. There are currently over 500,000 open computing jobs, in every sector, from manufacturing to banking, from agriculture to healthcare, but only 50,000 computer science graduates a year. Whether a student aspires to be a software engineer, or if she just wants a well-rounded education in today's changing world, access to computer science in school is an economic imperative for our nation to remain competitive. And with the growing threat of cyber warfare, this is even a critical matter of national security. Despite this growing need, targeted federal funding to carry out these efforts in classrooms is virtually non-existent. This bipartisan issue can be addressed without growing the federal budget.

Comments

Re:Dear Government,

[TheGratefulNet]

WHO are you kidding??

future workforce is exactly the same as today's tech workforce. 90% from india, 8% from misc asia, the rest from western countries, including US born.

training US kids is just going to wast their time and money and set them up for eventual upset.

you want to fix this economy: start enforcing h1b quotas or get rid of it entirely until our OWN unemployement sinks to proper and normal levels.

until you stop the h1b abuse, everything you say about 'tech shortage' is KNOWN BULLSHIT. we don't want to hear your cries for ever cheaper indentured servants. we're so totally sick of your shit, we're ready to revolt. and unless something changes in the next cycle, there will be non-peaceful periods of time. when people are pushed to homelessness, this WILL happen.

fix it now or pay the piper later.

but don't cry to us about fake shortages, mr. rich asshole ceo!