Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City announced September that all public schools in the city will be required to offer Computer Science as a course within 10 years. The process will be difficult and frustrating. Costs will be enormous—the city is willing to spend almost $81 million as funding for this ambitious goal. Thousands of new teachers will need to be trained in a state that doesn’t provide a computer-science teaching certificate. Students with already-stressful school schedules will be further burdened with work. So what exactly does this new project provide?
By placing Computer Science as an elective in all public schools, students—especially those from lower-class families—are given an opportunity to which they may have had little to no exposure before. Less than 10 percent of public schools in NYC currently have computer-science programs, and only one percent of all students take such classes, according to the NYC Department of Education. For many students, learning how to code is an experience that could very well change their lives. An individual interested in Computer Science can find many programs and events through which they could go to college, earn a bachelor’s degree, and go into fields such as software development, an occupation that draws in a median salary of $93,350 compared to the average salary of $51,371 in the United States.
NYC is not the first locale to attempt such a feat. Earlier, Chicago had promised to make Computer Science a high-school graduation requirement by 2018. San Francisco voted in June to make the course mandatory for all students in elementary and middle school. But should such a regulation be enforced across entire states, including our own? Well, perhaps.
A point to consider is that large urban centers such as NYC and San Francisco are currently booming with technology companies. A myriad of startup companies is blossoming as local, independent venues, while the ever-present corporations of Google and Apple show no signs of stopping. It seems only natural that the required skills are taught to students growing up in the area. Outside of these technological hotspots, however, the demand for programmers is less evident. In many less-populated areas, the idea of teaching computer science may seem irrelevant or even pointless, given the lack of opportunity to go into related careers. Attempting to bring such electives into these locations would require immense dedication and effort from both residents and the state. At the moment, the best course of action is to focus on where computer-science courses would make the most impact: the city.
Apart from jobs and cost, programming allows students to earn a level of respect for the computers that they use so frequently. It seems ironic that people can integrate laptops and phones so deeply into their everyday lives, yet still be completely clueless when it comes to why or how a program or app works. It may be that people are intimidated to an extent by computer science. After all, the thought of sitting for hours on end at a computer may not seem so fulfilling, especially when there’s actual work involved. But in a rapidly changing world of technology, a skill such as programming is not useless but increasingly essential for students who will soon enter a computer-driven world as adults.