The House has officially passed HR 5, the Student Success Act, by a vote of 221-207. The bill would reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and includes some provisions helpful to computer science education and educators, thanks to the approval of an amendment from Representative Susan Brooks (R-IN) and Representative Jared Polis (D-CO).
The proposal from representatives Polis and Brooks (bi-partisan support!) changes some provisions of HR 5 to clarify that computer science educators should be supported by the bill’s professional development initiatives. You can see the debate of the amendment and the compelling statistics around the need for more K-12 computer science education here:
CSTA is deeply encouraged encouraged that the discipline provided a moment of bipartisan support during the debate, with the amendment winning broad support from the House of Representatives.
While the ESEA reauthorization process moves forward, CSTA and the network of computer science education advocates will be pursuing multiple strategies and opportunities to elevate the profile of the most important discipline of the 21st Century.
This is an advocacy win worth celebrating and it is important to note that CSTA and the many members of the Computing in the Core coalition played a critical role in this win.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA, Executive Director
This is fantastic news! Thanks to CSTA and reps Polis and Brooks for making it happen. Susan Brooks and staff did their homework: “By 2020 it’s expected that half of the 9.2 million U.S. STEM jobs will be in computing.” That’s right, and the way we get from here to there is that 70% of *new* STEM jobs are in computing.