Below, you’ll find the Reasoning & Rationale to what we call a Bill-Request. Once certain milestones are met, as defined HERE, lawyers will be called upon to draft what will then become a Bill-Demand to Congress and the President.

Published in 2015

Where will one find the most rewarding jobs in the years ahead — the jobs that offer not only the highest pay but the fastest track to upward mobility? We’d bet they’ll be in computing and programming.

Decades after the invention of the computer, computer related skills are still sorely lacking in our children.

The Economic Party has vowed to set up a federally funded computer science schooling system in the year 2021, to run onsite at our public schools, and in parallel with the public school curriculum, to teach every child how to code, starting age 6. (They say the best age to teach a kid a second language, even, is before he/she turns 7.)

As a reminder from our Degrees in Demand bill-request:

We must also, as a nation, encourage the early and advanced learning of mathematics and science for our young, in particular applied mathematics and applied science.

As a nation, we allocate way too much of everything to song and dance — just turn on the TV for kids and teens, and you get the picture.

Sure, the fun stuff is an integral part of growing up, but its over-allocation is setting our kids up for competitive disadvantage against students in major economies as well as emerging economies.

It’s documented fact that American 15-year-olds rank in the bottom half, of all advanced nations, in math/science literacy.

The OECD Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2009 tells us that students in many leading global manufacturing nations, and regions, have established either wide leads over US students in the field of mathematics. American kids came in 23rd in science and 31st in math against kids in 65 countries, according to PISA.

In parts of Asia, where math training is intensive at an early age — and sometimes very early age — the disparity gets stark. To illustrate, in China:

• Math, Physics and Chemistry are core subjects in middle school.
• Math, Physics and Chemistry are core subjects for school entrance exams.
• There are entrance exams to get into both middle school and high school.
• Students are pushed by parents to study for several hours after school.
• Students are encouraged to attend tutoring after school, particularly in math and science.
• Students are encouraged to attend Saturday classes, particularly in math and science.
• In China, classes routinely start at 7.30 am and run until 5.00 pm.

In stark contrast, the American school day is too short, the American school year is too short. The quality and quantity of our school curriculum is far behind.

(Didn’t Steve Jobs, cofounder and CEO of the most valuable company on Earth, Apple, once talk to Barack Obama about all this, only to hear his President pay him lip-service?)

We have a lot of celebrities — from the world of sports and entertainment — going through the White House at the invitation of our Presidents, frequently. In light of that, and knowing how valuable a President’s time is, how about we entertain an alternative:

The President of the United States should, as often as possible (once every year, at least) invite the best of our youngest students, say ages 7 through 14, from all over the country, to the White House to accord them national recognition.

Let these kids then return to their schools and encounter not just admiration and envy, but new competition to make the White House invitation list, and a one-on-one photo op with the President, the following year.

A President’s capacity to inspire our young ones to strive for excellence, and possibly greatness, cannot be underestimated.

Our Presidents have routinely granted presidential medals to barons of bailouts (standby for our upcoming commentary on awards of the Medal of Freedom to highly suspect freedom-fighters), so why not also periodic grants of presidential medals to our finest students, with all the pomp and splendor of a Rose Garden ceremony, to accompany?

To repeat, the Economic Party has vowed to set up a federally funded computer science schooling system in the year 2021, to run onsite at our public schools, and in parallel with the public school curriculum, to teach every child how to code, starting age 6. But 2021 is (as of this writing) more than 5 years away. Let’s act sooner. Vote for this bill-request, in support of acting sooner.