theodp writes On Tuesday, the State of Washington heard public testimony on House Bill 1813 (video), which takes aim at boy’s historical over-representation in K-12 computer classes. To allow them to catch flights, representatives of Microsoft and Microsoft-bankrolled Code.org were permitted to give their testimony before anyone else (“way too many young people, particularly our girls…simply don’t have access to the courses at all, ” lamented Jane Broom, who manages Microsoft’s philanthropic portfolio), so it’s unclear whether they were headed to the airport when a representative of the WA State Superintendent of Public Instruction voiced the sole dissent against the Bill. “The Superintendent strongly believes in the need to improve our ability to teach STEM, to advance computer science, to make technology more available to all students, ” explained Chris Vance. “Our problem, and our concern, is with the use of the competitive grant program…just providing these opportunities to a small number of students…that’s the whole basic problem…disparity of opportunity…if this is a real priority…fund it fully” (HB 1813, like the White House K-12 CS plan, counts on philanthropy to make up for tax shortfalls). Hey, parents of boys are likely to be happy to see another instance of educators striving to be more inclusive than tech when it comes to encouraging CS participation! Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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WA Pushes Back On Microsoft and Code.org’s Call For Girls-First CS Education