Pete Steinfeld, Executive Director, TechStart

In December, 2023, at the instigation of Governor Kate Brown, Oregon adopted a Plan for Computer Science Education because Governor Brown thought that technology education was critical to Oregon's future.

Here we are, two years down the road, and we've made little measurable progress towards implementing the plan. We've lost the one full-time computer science position at the Oregon Department of Education, and, in the recent legislative session, the Joint Ways and Means Committee declined to give any funding at all to the implementation of the plan. At the same time, because of the declining student population, every school district is making budget cuts to protect themselves as best they can.

One result of the current reality is that, in the face of budget cuts, with no incentive to promote statewide computer science education, we’re actually laying off computer science teachers.

This situation has two effects:

First, statewide initiatives will languish since individual school districts have little to no incentive to implement them.
Second, students at schools that are smaller, rural, and have students with lower socio-economic status are missing out on the opportunities that are available to students at the large high schools near Oregon's high high-tech hubs.

If we really think that technology education is important to Oregon's future, we should make policy changes that will:

Fund training in computer science and artificial intelligence for existing teachers.

Incentivize school districts to reward and retain existing computer science teachers.
Incentivize school districts to take steps towards the goals of the Oregon Plan for Computer Science Education.

Pete Steinfeld
Executive Director
TechStart