A new study released last week from Google and Gallup shows that American schools are failing to provide African American and Latino students with the skills needed to qualify for high-paying jobs in the growing tech market.
Computer science classes are not being offered in many schools that have large minority enrollment even though the study reports that these students are 1.5 times more interested in studying computer science than their white counterparts.
The Google/Gallup study found that only 47 percent of black students had access to classes dedicated to computer science as compared to 58 percent of whites. Additionally, only 58 percent of black and 50 percent of Hispanic students had daily access to a computer, as opposed to 68 percent for white students.
Lack of computer science education leads to limited career options as the world becomes more dependent on technology. Each year, thousands of job openings are left unfilled simply because employers cannot find qualified people.
The lack of computer science opportunities in minority-dominated schools directly correlates with the students’ earning potential. A Pew Research Center analysis of federal government data found that African Americans on average are at least twice as likely as whites to be poor or unemployed. Another study showed that black men earn only 73 percent of what white men do, while black women earn only 63 percent of what white women earn.
One solution to ending this disparity is to end the stark racial and gender gap in public schools by increasing the number of computers and computer classes being made available to students from all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Doing so is not only fair, it is also necessary for the purposes of our national security. As the internet and related technologies become further embedded in our daily lives, it is also becoming one of the greatest threats to our country. Cases of cybercrime are increasing exponentially every year, with experts predicting that by 2019 the cost of data breaches will increase to $2.1 trillion globally.
Almost every American has had their personal information compromised by at least one data breach in the last few years. In June 2015, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reported that it had suffered a data breach that targeted up to 18 million people. Another data breach at the credit agency Experian included names, addresses, social security numbers, birth dates, and even passport numbers of as many as 15 million T-Mobile customers.
America is under constant threat from China, Russia, North Korea, and a myriad of other cyber criminals that are looking to disrupt our government and business operations. It is a matter of national security that we need to encourage American students of all races to pursue careers in computer science.
InsideSources reported that there were 559,321 high-paying jobs posted last year in computer science related fields. However, American universities only produced 42,969 computer science graduates over that same time period. According to Morehouse College, in the last year, there were only 93 male African American computer science Ph.D. students in the entire country.
The key to developing a strong American workforce that has the necessary skills to protect national security is to start educating students at a young age. James Gosler, a top cybersecurity expert, has stated that the US has only 1,000 people with the necessary skills to defend the country against the most complex cyber attacks out of the 20,000-30,000 people required to do so. This need presents a tremendous opportunity to help bridge the racial education gap and provide high-paying jobs for minorities.
Currently, only 29 states allow computer classes to count towards a high school diploma. And even though computer science courses are widely available nationwide, only three of the top 121 universities have any type of requirement for graduation. Improvements need to start at the elementary school level so students will grow up learning about the opportunities a computer science education can bring them.
For too long there has been “...a debate raging in this country...over whether universities are supposed to teach for enlightenment or to prepare students for the job market.” Considering recent grads make up almost 40 percent of the country’s unemployed, it is obvious that the current education system is not preparing graduates with the skills needed to attain the hundreds of thousands of available tech jobs.
Higher education is no longer just the privilege of the wealthy elite in our society that is eager to explore the fascinating world of 16th-century French literature. The security of our nation depends on schools teaching real world job skills and making them available to all Americans, regardless of race or gender. The time is now for educators to adjust their focus from the antiquated educational agenda that has been in place since the 1800s so that our students are prepared for the careers of the future.