Trump signs Memo directing more K-12 efforts in STEM and offering Coder skills.

Tavares, FL                Sept. 26, 2017

President Trump just signed new Presidential Memo to the Education Secretary on STEM and need for coders in K-12.  LCSD has consistently ignored need for code training, only focusing on robotics. I have brought this up at prior meetings. Yesterday's White House Press Briefing by Sarah Sanders mentioned this and the lack of code training in K-12, which results in importing foreign coders. There are many more jobs in coding than there are in robotics.

 

Notice Trump focuses on needed JOB training for high paying jobs, thus doesn't discuss the politically correct "STEAM" that includes Arts.

 

 

"Today, too many of our Nation's K-12 and post-secondary students lack access to high-quality STEM education, and thus are at risk of being shut out from some of the most attractive job options in the growing United States economy. Courses in Computer Science are especially scarce in too many schools and communities, despite the job opportunities that these skills create. Nearly 40 percent of high schools do not offer physics and 60 percent of high schools do not offer computer programming. Of the nearly 17,000 high schools that were accredited to offer Advanced Placement exams in 2015, only 18 percent were accredited to teach Advanced Placement Computer Science (AP-CS). Minorities and students in rural communities often have even less access to Computer Science education. Nationwide, only 34 percent of African American students and 30 percent of rural high school students have access to a Computer Science class. Furthermore, even where classes are offered, there is a serious gender gap: less than a quarter of the students who took the AP-CS A exam nationally in 2016 were girls."

 

HERE is the White House press release on the STEM memo.

 

Here also is the video of White House Briefing - watch the first part where Sanders discusses the EO, which is also on Trump's Twitter account. 

 

Conclusion:

- LCSD needs to research and expand training in coding, which is now as important as algebra and English writing skills for higher paying jobs.  ( Besides work as an Internal Audit manager, I was a software developer for 7 years for firms like IBM, the Gap, Fluor-Daniel, and other Fortune 500 firms).

 

Vance Jochim

FiscalRangers.com