Why is computer science more important than, say, physics, biology, mathematics, astronomy or engineering?
Those are going to have more widespread impact in many ways than teaching computer science. And this is coming from someone that studied computer science - it just isn't a widely appealing discipline, and not easily picked up by the majority of the populace.
Programming just isn't going to be a common skill that I can see - while the ability to think abstractly is useful, it's beyond the abilities of a lot of individuals, and not exactly appealing to the majority either.
Not to discount or downplay the effort, but rather to bring up the fact that STEM funding should be spread across a broad spectrum of topics.