Bay Area Council Announces Support for STEM Legislation

The Bay Area Council is supporting crucial legislation to expand access to computer science education in K-12 classrooms. Assemblymember Marc Berman, who authored AB 20 and AB 52, stated in the Assembly Committee on Education that “while computing occupations make up 58 percent of all projected new jobs in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, making computer science one of the most in-demand college majors, California is not meeting the demand for these jobs. Currently, California has 75,095 open computing jobs, but only 32 percent of all public high schools teach computer science.”

AB 20 and AB 52, respectively, would create the California Computer Science Coordinator in the State Department of Education, and require scheduled updates to the computer science strategic implementation plan. The implementation plan will continue to identify ways to make computer science education available to all K-12 students in California, better preparing them for the needs of the future workforce.