Silicon Valley giants push for coding lessons in US classrooms
Companies including tech giant Apple and industry-backed not-for-profit Code.org are working to introduce coding into US school curriculums. Last month, Apple introduced a year-long curriculum for high schools and community colleges to teach app design in Swift. More recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook told President Donald Trump the US government should ensure students learn computer programming to address a skills deficit in coding. Meanwhile, Code has raised more than $60m from Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Salesforce to press for education policy changes, build curriculums, provide online coding tutorials and train teachers.

At a White House gathering of tech titans last week, Timothy D. Cook, the chief executive of Apple, delivered a blunt message to President Trump on how public schools could better serve the nation’s needs. To help solve a “huge deficit in the skills that we need today,” Mr. Cook said, the government should do its part to make sure students learn computer programming.

“Coding,” Mr. Cook told the president, “should be a requirement in every public school.”

The Apple chief’s education mandate was just the latest tech company push for coding courses in schools. But even without Mr. Trump’s support, Silicon Valley is already advancing that agenda — thanks largely to the marketing prowess of Code.org, an industry-backed nonprofit group.