Chicago School Official: US IT Jobs Offshored Because 'We Weren't Making Our Own' Coders

theodp writes: In a slick new video, segments of which were apparently filmed looking out from Google's Chicago headquarters giving it a nice high-tech vibe, Chicago Public Schools' CS4ALL staffers not-too-surprisingly argue that creating technology is "a power that everyone needs to have."

In the video, the Director of Computer Science and IT Education for the nation's third largest school district offers a take on why U.S. IT jobs were offshored that jibes nicely with the city's new computer science high school graduation requirement. From the transcript: "People still talk about it's all offshored, it's all in India and you know, there are some things that are there but they don't even realize some of the reasons that they went there in the first place is because we weren't making our own."

Comments

My own college did this

[Anonymous Coward]

Algonquin College in Ottawa Ontario. They farmed out a simple system of keeping track of tests and students to an east indian firm called 'blackboard'. It was a disastrous shit show that never ended. Whenever I would try to bring the matter up as both a programming graduate and as a web developer they waved me off with dismissive remarks.

The system could have been developed by their own students easily and cheaply with a websocket, mongo database, and nodejs webserver. However then blame for bugs or issues would fall directly upon their shoulder and not on some far flung ethereal entity meaning people could directly challenge the problems and force them to be resolved.

I'm grasping for a reason why. To my mind there never was a good one. We could have built that system easily and cheaply, but they would not allow us to. By us I mean the students they handed diplomas to and said 'you are now considered professionally trained to perform these services'.

I know full well their training was sub standard and they were liars and charletons, that doesn't mean we did not posses these skills in spite of their limp half hearted efforts. It was obvious their interest was our wallets and not our minds. We could have done that task and been enriched for it, both materially and in our skill set and experience.

Lesson of warning to those of you either entering into an education or seeking one. If they will not hire their own product to do the work, be wary of their competence as they do not in their hearts believe think they have any to pass on else they would put their own product to work for themselves and everyone else with trust.

WTF, liberals?

[Okian Warrior]

Seriously, what's the point of Government jobs if they're not going to employ Americans? This is what my tax dollars go to? Sending money overseas? And yes, it's my tax dollars too. State School systems get federal money.

This is why you're seeing the resurgence of neo-nazis and white supremacists. We're abandoning the working class. Same Bloody thing happened in Germany in 1944 and we ignored it then too because nobody wanted their taxes to go up. How's that quote go? Something about business getting out of hand and us being lucky to live through it...

I've never found a liberal who could state a position without resorting to insults.

The inevitable result is that people simply stop, keep quiet, and get on with their lives. Then, in the privacy of the voting booth, they vote for the candidate promising reform, and against the candidate with insults and no real position.

Isn't that a better and simpler explanation than "nazis and supremacists"?

Re:Insanity

[Anonymous Coward]

We are a 'resource' to be exploited.

Why yes, yes you are. We all are. If you cannot prove your value, then you should ask yourself why you are trying to do what you are doing. I find if very difficult to have sympathy for the profession that is trying to automate the rest of the working world into the unemployment line. 'Nuff said.

Re:Insanity

[rtb61]

People also forget, that decades ago companies used to take on cadets and train them. Now, cheap arse fuckers, that don't pay taxes, demand the government and workers pay for the training, which the companies exploit and then demand to pay less and less for the work, else they will bring in the cheapest foreign labour they can find. Now how many people do they want trained locally at government and worker expense, way more than is necessary ie supply and demand, glut of tech workers and wages collapses. Basically yes, they are psychopathic cunts, not better way of putting, they of course demand to be paid more and more for being the best psychopathic cunts for as long as it lasts and then wander off laughing with golden parachutes when the companies collapse, all backed by mainstream media, this backing is paid for in advertisements costs.

Re:Insanity

[slew]

Decades ago, when a company invested in their employees, they were pretty sure they would stay with them, not out of loyalty, but out of necessity. There were only a small number of companies to poach them, and starting your own company or joining a small startup wasn't generally a highly mobile path (only taken by people that wanted to get out of the rat-race).

Now, for better or worse, there are a large number of multi-national companies that are out there that are more than willing to poach employees after they are trained and it is easier than ever to start your own company become a millionaire. For many companies, the return on training investment is low enough that it makes poaching and out-sourcing a better strategy. The explanation is probably just that simple.

I would argue that it is probably a bit better for some in this environment and probably worse for most people. Success accumulates now more for the aggressive than the loyal and I don't see the game changing anytime soon. It's basically how silicon valley started.

Re:Insanity

[AmiMoJo]

That's a very American way of looking at it.

To the extent that humans are a resource, they are more like a fruit tree than a disposable cog in a machine. The company has to nurture them, help them grow and the extract value from them in a way that doesn't harm them. Sometimes the rot sets in and the tree can't be saved, but usually it just needs a little bit of support.

As for automating away jobs, I tend to think of it more as automating away the drudgery and freeing people up for more interesting stuff. People used to copy out books by hand, until the printing press was invented. Now the descendants of those book copiers making a living playing video games on Twitch. Change is inevitable, no-one wants my skills writing software for 80s home computers any more, what matters is that there is a way forward for everyone.

Re:Insanity

[fluffernutter]

You hit the nail on the head with point two. Everything else you mention requires excellent managers to make it all hum along, and I think those are what are truly in short supply.