Rep. Elizabeth Esty (CT-5) has successfully offered an important amendment to H.R. 4186 to expand a STEM teacher professional development grant under the National Science Foundation to include computer science teachers.
Esty’s amendment (one of two she put forward) is now part of H.R. 4186, which would renew parts of the “America COMPETES Act” to support investments in innovation through research and development and improve America’s competitiveness. H.R. 4186 successfully passed the Research and Technology Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, on which Esty serves.
According to Rep. Esty, this amendment will give teachers additional resources to help prepare students for the jobs of the 21st century. “We have so many teachers in Connecticut who are going above and beyond to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers, and it’s time we support them”, says Esty.
According to the Conference Board, demand for computing professionals is roughly four times higher than the average demand for all other occupations, with more than 575,000 jobs in computing open as of January 2014. In the meantime, thousands of computer science teachers across the country struggle to get the same types of support and investments as their math and science colleagues. Rep. Esty’s work on this amendment is an important step in creating a more level praying field for computer science teachers by enabling them to access resources available to other STEM teachers.
Chris Stephenson
CSTA Executive Director