How Many Members of Congress Does It Take To Pass a $400MM CS Bill? 180
theodp writes: Over at Code.org, they're celebrating because more than 100 members of Congress are now co-sponsoring the Computer Science Education Act (HR 2536), making the bill designed to"strengthen elementary and secondary computer science education" the most broadly cosponsored education bill in the House. By adding fewer than 50 words to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, HR 2536 would elevate Computer Science to a "core academic subject" (current core academic subjects are English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography), a status that opens the doors not only to a number of funding opportunities, but also to a number of government regulations. So, now that we know it takes 112 U.S. Representatives to make a CS education bill, the next question is, "How many taxpayer dollars will it take to pay for the consequences?" While Code.org says "the bill is cost-neutral and doesn't introduce new programs or mandates," the organization in April pegged the cost of putting CS in every school at $300-$400 million. In Congressional testimony last January, Code.org proposed that "comprehensive immigration reform efforts that tie H-1B visa fees to a new STEM education fund" could be used "to support the teaching and learning of more computer science in K-12 schools," echoing Microsoft's National Talent Strategy.
They should've removed one to make room. (Score:1, Funny)
I get english, and reading/language arts (which is english), math, science, foreign languages I suppose is a wobbler for me, civics and government smells a bit like history, but sure, count it separate, economics is pretty important, as well as history and geography...but arts? Plain old arts?
I'm sorry, but if people want to make paper mache, or paint, or draw, or throw pots, you can do that on your own damn time. It's akin to having "computer gaming", or "stamp collecting" a core academic subject -> art is a *hobby*, not an academic subject.
Re:They should've removed one to make room. (Score:1, Funny)
No, it tends to be looking at a building that has collapsed because it was artful, but structurally unsound, when people go all, "wow, that was really pretty, but didn't have a lot of structural integrity."
That being said, for a job that has only around 100k jobs in the US, out of a total of 150 million, doesn't seem like it warrants being a core subject:
http://www.aia.org/press/AIAS0... [aia.org]
"The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB) estimates the number of architects licensed in the United States at 105,847."
http://www.deptofnumbers.com/e... [deptofnumbers.com]
"There were 139,004,000 jobs in the US in July 2014 according to the CES survey of employers. The CPS survey of households showed 146,352,000 employed persons for the month. "
Around 7/100ths of 1% - sounds like a hobby market to me.