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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Senate gave preliminary approval Thursday to a bill that seeks to address what one lawmaker calls "a crisis in America."
"We have a 1 million computer programmer shortage in this nation between now and 2020," said Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper. "And AP computer science is only 0.7 percent of high school enrollment."
SB107 creates a computer science initiative requiring the Utah STEM Action Center and the Utah State Board of Education to implement a repository of computer science instructional resources, provide professional development for teachers and select software curriculum to use in computer coding classes.
Up to $1.5 million would be used to license a number of computer coding instructional software providers, which districts and charters could choose to implement on an individual basis. The bill would also appropriate $320,000 for professional development for teachers.
Stephenson said while there doesn't appear to be policies that inhibit Utah schools from providing more computer programming opportunities, additional funding would "move the needle" in better meeting demands from the workforce for students in that field.
"Sometimes because the resources are already allocated, the inertia of the status quo is so powerful that we just keep doing what we've always done, because that has first call on the priorities and first call on the dollars," Stephenson said. "I believe that's part of the problem."
Initial estimates show that the $2 million appropriation would be enough to open computer coding classes to half of all high schoolers in the state, with the possibility of expanding over time.
Stephenson said the primary limiting factor to implementation is having sufficient hardware in schools, but he is also sponsoring a bill that would allocate more than $65 million to implement a one-to-one student technology program statewide.
"With computer-assisted instruction, the software is the cheap part," he said. "It's the hardware and that infrastructure that is the most costly part."
The bill passed its second reading in the Senate in a 21-4 vote. The Senate will vote on the bill again before it is considered by the House.
