Submission + - CS Course-Resisting NOLA Catholic High School Raises Ire of Tech-Backed Code.org
theodp writes: In its March 11th meeting, the Code.org Advocacy Coalition — whose members include Amazon, Google, Meta, and Microsoft — raised concerns about the filing of Louisiana House Bill 787, which aims to remove a new requirement for all high school students — public and private — to complete a computer science course to continue to be eligible for Louisiana TOPS scholarships. Public school students are subject to a new Code.org-backed CS course high school graduation requirement, but that requirement does not apply to private school students.
"So, to try to explain Louisiana's situation," Code.org told Coalition members (video, 16:08), "is that they have two sections of code that are basically applicable to this. One is their strict graduation requirements. It says every student has to have these courses before they graduate. That's what most states have. It only applies to public schools. They have a completely different section of code that is about their TOPS scholarship program, their state provided scholarship program. And what the DOE has tried to do for several years now is tried to have those two things mirrored. So, when we wrote the CSGRAD requirement in Louisiana, those two things were mirrored. We had to actually fix it, but they ended up being mirrored. What the problem, or what has the impetus for this legislation being filed is that TOPS applies to any student in the state of Louisiana wanting state graduation or state college funds. So, that includes private school students, includes Catholic school students, etc. So, though the straight graduation requirement does not apply to them, if they want state scholarship funding, they have to meet everything that the state says because the two sections of code are mirrored. This legislation would remove the computer science from the TOPS requirement, so the state scholarship money."
And while even Code.org agreed this seems like a reasonable ask, they went on to explain why this bill — which was blamed on a New Orleans Catholic High School in a slide — must be defeated due to fears that it may impact the Coalition's mission. From the transcript: "And you say, okay, well that's not a huge deal. That's how most of our states are that we have a graduation requirement for all public schools. It doesn't apply to private schools. I agree on the face. The problem goes back to that the DOE does like for those two things to be mirrored. And our fear is that if this legislation starts having legs and gets close to the finish line that DOE or LOSA and I have no indication that they would do this, but just knowing that they want the two mirrored, they may say, well, if you're going to remove it from TOPS, remove it from graduation requirement. I hope they wouldn't, but that is unfortunately a reality we might have to face. [...] We're going to continue trying to fight it. And I want to give Jamie and the DOE down in Louisiana major props because they have bent over backwards over the past two years to try to make alternative methods, giving all these schools things that they can do with students including a competency level exam that can replace it for those students in the Catholic schools. There's a lot that they've done and this is pretty much from one of the Catholic schools in the state. Most of the rest of them have at least figured out the process. But I was in a meeting down there once and the principal of this one particular school looked at me and said, "I will work to get this repealed no matter what y'all do." So, this is coming pretty much from one individual or one school. So, we're going to continue fighting it. We're going to hope that it does not have legs and we'll see how it goes. But if you have connections to Louisiana, you might want to activate those to try to head off this and defeat it."
"So, to try to explain Louisiana's situation," Code.org told Coalition members (video, 16:08), "is that they have two sections of code that are basically applicable to this. One is their strict graduation requirements. It says every student has to have these courses before they graduate. That's what most states have. It only applies to public schools. They have a completely different section of code that is about their TOPS scholarship program, their state provided scholarship program. And what the DOE has tried to do for several years now is tried to have those two things mirrored. So, when we wrote the CSGRAD requirement in Louisiana, those two things were mirrored. We had to actually fix it, but they ended up being mirrored. What the problem, or what has the impetus for this legislation being filed is that TOPS applies to any student in the state of Louisiana wanting state graduation or state college funds. So, that includes private school students, includes Catholic school students, etc. So, though the straight graduation requirement does not apply to them, if they want state scholarship funding, they have to meet everything that the state says because the two sections of code are mirrored. This legislation would remove the computer science from the TOPS requirement, so the state scholarship money."
And while even Code.org agreed this seems like a reasonable ask, they went on to explain why this bill — which was blamed on a New Orleans Catholic High School in a slide — must be defeated due to fears that it may impact the Coalition's mission. From the transcript: "And you say, okay, well that's not a huge deal. That's how most of our states are that we have a graduation requirement for all public schools. It doesn't apply to private schools. I agree on the face. The problem goes back to that the DOE does like for those two things to be mirrored. And our fear is that if this legislation starts having legs and gets close to the finish line that DOE or LOSA and I have no indication that they would do this, but just knowing that they want the two mirrored, they may say, well, if you're going to remove it from TOPS, remove it from graduation requirement. I hope they wouldn't, but that is unfortunately a reality we might have to face. [...] We're going to continue trying to fight it. And I want to give Jamie and the DOE down in Louisiana major props because they have bent over backwards over the past two years to try to make alternative methods, giving all these schools things that they can do with students including a competency level exam that can replace it for those students in the Catholic schools. There's a lot that they've done and this is pretty much from one of the Catholic schools in the state. Most of the rest of them have at least figured out the process. But I was in a meeting down there once and the principal of this one particular school looked at me and said, "I will work to get this repealed no matter what y'all do." So, this is coming pretty much from one individual or one school. So, we're going to continue fighting it. We're going to hope that it does not have legs and we'll see how it goes. But if you have connections to Louisiana, you might want to activate those to try to head off this and defeat it."
