Political Quotes

“I, too, want to emphasize the importance of introducing young students to computer science and coding courses as part of their education. I thank my colleague and friend, Senator Cantwell, for working with me on this issue. The answer is yes. Our legislation, the High School CODES Act, will incentivize states to allow coding and computer science classes to satisfy an advanced math, science, or foreign language graduation credit. Now, this is not to replace the basic math, science, and foreign language classes all students need, but to allow students who do not need to take Calculus II or III to instead take a computer science or coding course. The CODES Act does not mandate curriculum on States; it gives them the flexibility to provide students with the type of education that best fits their needs. It gives students more opportunity to succeed in our rapidly changing economy. According to code.org, computing occupations are the No. 1 source of all new wages in America and make up over half of all projected new jobs in STEM fields; yet, computer science is marginalized throughout our education system, with fewer than half of U.S. schools offering any computer science course, and only 8 percent of STEM graduates studying it. In my home State of Louisiana, there are currently more than 2,300 open computing jobs. The average salary for a computing occupation in Louisiana is approximately $67,600, about $26,000 higher than the average salary in my State.…”