By activist you mean corporate lobbyists. They are the ones pushing this computer programming b.s.
A combination of both, methinks. However, you have to look beyond who is doing it, and instead ask why they're doing it.
The activists do it because it shoves their agendae along. They get to put their name in the papers, and more importantly, they get to feel good about themselves while they do it.
The (tech) corporate interests on the other hand, they do it for two reasons: First, they think that by doing so, they get a bigger labor market down the road - thus driving down costs. Second, they get to pretend that they're doing something 'important', while at the same time buying themselves a big, fat rhetorical shield against accusations of $evil from the SJW crowd.
Meanwhile, the rest of us wind up with girls being shoved into learning something they may well turn out hating, and boys sitting in an "language arts" class thinking "WTF?" Both groups will have people in them that end up loving what they've discovered, but I suspect that the majority will have wasted their time.
But you know, both CEO and activist alike in LA can bask in the applause and adulation. Of course, for the LA County taxpayers, well, they're used to the PMITA treatment they get from their local government (to the point of sheer masochism, even) so maybe they won't feel this one as much...