Last summer’s White House-backed National Day of Civic Hacking spurred nearly 100 hackathons around the country, and illustrated some exceptional coding talent from paticipants as young as 12. Now, California educators and tech industry leaders will present a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown urging the introduction of coding into school curricula.
According to Education Week, 17 states and the District of Columbia count computer science classes for math or science credit, and Texas — which has made high-profile grabs of California businesses — now requires all high schools in the state to offer computer science classes.
According to the letter — posted on code.org — 17 tech industry heavyweights from the likes of Salesforce, Dropbox and Netflix, have joined with 11 educators to appeal for a partnership to incorporate K-12 computer science curricula in California schools.
“Ninety percent of our K-12 schools do not teach computer science,” says the letter. “The Conference Board estimates 70,000 open computing jobs in California — roughly 16 jobs for every computer science graduate in the state! Besides the jobs, a basic understanding of this foundational field is relevant in every 21st century career.”
The letter concludes with an appeal to Gov. Brown to help make California a computer science trailblazer.
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