Dive Brief:
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A number of technology, business, government and education leaders are working together to push Congress to increase federal funding for technology education.
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The group has a petition in place asking Congress to provide $250 million in funding to school districts in order to give K-12 students an opportunity to learn to code.
- President Obama recently requested $4 billion in funding for states and $100 million for districts to bring computer science programs to every K-12 student in the country, but this new group wants to coordinate the effort without raising the federal budget.
Dive Insight:
The shortage of tech skills is already an issue with real bottom-line impacts as every company, effectively, becomes a technology company. A recent report from Appirio and Wakefield Research found that a shortage of IT talent often prevents businesses from meeting their IT goals.
Failure to modernize and keep up with tech in a corporation can threaten a businesses' foundation. But, the lack of viable talent can often lead to bidding wars, with some companies priced out of hiring necessary tech professionals.
Each year, only 13,000 college students graduate as computer science majors. The tech talent shortage will likely continue without a concerted effort to change the situation.
The Change.org effort is supported by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Amazon Chairmain and CEO Jeff Bezos and Salesforce Chairman and CEO Marc Benioff, among many others.
Microsoft, Google, Zuckerberg, Bezos and others have committed $48 million to the cause already.
"The breadth of support shows that computer science isn’t just a tech problem anymore, it’s an America problem," Code.org founder Hadi Partovi told TechCrunch.
