Chicago Mayor Calls For National Coding Graduation Requirement

Recently, New York City announced plans to add computer science classes to all of its public schools over the next decade. Chicago's mayor is taking that a step further, calling for coding classes to be a national graduation requirement — under such a mandate, all students would have to take such classes to get their high school diploma. Of course, such a mandate would likely end up being very burdensome for school districts.

The call was made by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who made the proposal this past Thursday. He pointed out that kids need to have this knowledge to thrive in the present and future world. Chicago itself already has plans in place to get its high schoolers on the coding path, moving to have computer science sources as a graduation requirement.

According to The Hill, in a statement at a Washington Post-sponsored event, he said, "Just make [coding classes] a requirement. I am fine with Common Core. We adopted it in the city, one of the first cities to do it. I'm great. You need this skill — national policy. Make it a high-school graduation requirement."

While a noble effort, there are some big barriers in place — namely, finding individuals with both the tech credentials and the teaching credentials to teach such classes. As it stands, and as many critics have pointed out, those qualified to teach the classes can earn much higher salaries taking their skills elsewhere, giving them little incentive to become a high school instructor.

SOURCE: The Hill