A group of top business, education, and non-profit leaders – including Ana Mari Cauce and Ed Lazowska from UW – have written in support of HB 1813, stating:
“House Bill 1813 offers a comprehensive solution: it establishes education standards for computer science and matches private funding to train teachers, who are critical to expanding access to this field – and prioritizes investments to reach underrepresented students first. Nine out of 10 Washington voters support these proposals. We encourage you to commit $1 million per year to support the computer science education grant program. The 1:1 private match requirement means your investment would be doubled, enabling every Washington school to teach computer science by 2025.”
Read more here.
And check out a related op-ed in today’s Seattle Times by Code.org’s Hadi Partovi:
“When I was 9, my father gave my brother and me a life-changing gift: a Commodore 64 computer. It didn’t have any games, so I would learn to make my own. A world of opportunity and creativity opened up to me when I began learning how to program that computer.
“By my teenage years, I landed jobs as a computer programmer when my friends were baby-sitting or waiting tables. I graduated with a job at Microsoft and went on to enjoy a successful career in technology. As an immigrant, I’m living the American dream.
“Yet, 30 years after I came to the United States, I look around and wonder, why aren’t America’s schools offering the opportunity I had to every 21st-century child?”
Read more here.
And be sure to check out a related letter regarding partial funding for an expanded facility for UW Computer Science & Engineering, signed last week by 23 leaders – here.