California Bill Would Require Computer Science for High School Graduation

theodp writes: Flanked by posters holding K-12 computer science education advocacy charts and stats copied verbatim from tech giant backed and led nonprofit Code.org, California Assemblymember Marc Berman (D-Menlo Park) joined State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond at a press conference (Vimeo) last week to announce AB-2097, a bill that, if passed, will require every public high school to teach computer science and establish CS as a high school graduation requirement by the 2030-31 school year. A California Dept. of Education news release also echoed Code.org K-12 CS advocacy factoids.

The announcement came less than two weeks after Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi — whose goal is coincidentally to make CS a HS graduation requirement in all 50 states by 2030 — was a keynote speaker at the Association of California School Administrators Superintendents' Symposium. In an Oct 20 Facebook post, Berman noted he'd partnered with Code.org on legislation in the past and hinted that something big was in the works on the K-12 CS education front for California: "I had the chance to attend Code.org’s 10th anniversary celebration and chat with their founder, Hadi Partovi, as well as CS advocate Aloe Blacc. They’ve done amazing work expanding access to computer science education, especially for women & communities of color, and I’ve been proud to partner with them on legislation to do that in CA. More to come!"