Earlier this week, Donald Trump signed an initiative to put $200 million towards STEM education; tech companies offer donations. Could Trump’s latest initiative be the push STEM programs need in schools? (Photo from: Shuttershock)
With tech industries steadily on the rise, more schools, parents, and teachers are showing their support for STEM education. Donald Trump also showed his support earlier this week when he signed a Presidential Memorandum directing the Secretary of Education to prioritize STEM and computer science education. The plan’s goal is to put $200 million per year towards these education programs in schools. The Secretary of Education will also be required to turn in a report at the end of each fiscal year summarizing steps taken to encourage STEM education.
Organized two months ago by Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, the initiative is meant to further encourage students interested in engineering, technology, programming, and scientific fields. She points out how there are roughly six million jobs in the US that go unfilled because students don’t have access to computer science or STEM education programs.
A day after the Memorandum, tech companies like Amazon, Facebook. Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce showed their support by pledging a total of $300 million for the cause. These companies have already been pushing for more STEM education on their own to ensure the United States keeps up with other nations that surpass us in tech and science areas. The money will be disbursed over a period of five years. Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, and Salesforce each plan to donate $50 million. Aside from donating money, other companies plan to donate software and other technology as well. Salesforce.org plans to give ten software subscriptions to every school in the country.
The support of these companies comes at a tense time. The relationship between Trump and tech CEOs has been shaky over the move to dissolve DACA. A number of Trump's advisory councils even left after his lukewarm response to protests in Charlottesville.
Trump’s new initiative is similar to programs like Computer Science for All, set up by former President Barack Obama. This effort also relied on donations and commitments from nonprofits and tech companies. And while many got on board with the initiative, it never got congress approval for $4 billion in new federal spending.
Pushing for more STEM education is probably the least controversial item from Trump’s time in office. Still, it makes you wonder where the money will come from? With Trump showing no mercy with severing funding for programs related to art and immigration it almost sounds too good to be true.
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