US President Barack Obama on Saturday said he will ask US Congress for billions of US dollars to help students learn computer science skills and prepare for jobs in a changing economy.
“In the new economy, computer science isn’t an optional skill. It’s a basic skill,” Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.
Obama said only about one-quarter of kindergarten to year 12 schools offer computer science instruction, but that most parents want their children to develop analytical and coding skills.
“Today’s auto mechanics aren’t just sliding under cars to change the oil. They’re working on machines that run on as many as 100 million lines of code,” Obama said.
“That’s 100 times more than the Space Shuttle. Nurses are analyzing data and managing electronic health records. Machinists are writing computer programs,” he added.
The federal budget proposal for next year that Obama plans to send Congress on Tuesday next week is to seek US$4 billion for grants to states and US$100 million for competitive grants for school districts over the next three years to teach computer science in elementary, middle and high schools, administration officials said.
Separately, the National Science Foundation and the Corporation for National and Community Service this year is to start spending US$135 million to train teachers over five years.
Obama also wants governors, mayors, business leaders and tech entrepreneurs to become advocates for more widespread computer science education.
Microsoft president Brad Smith said computer science education is an “economic and social imperative for the next generation of American students.”
Smith, who spoke on a media call arranged by the White House, said that up to a million US technology jobs could be left unfilled by the end of the decade.
Meanwhile, nations as large as China and as small as Estonia are expanding computer science education, Smith said, but in the US “we’re moving, frankly, just more slowly than we need.”
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