From Alex Meade:
Letter to the Editor
Hello everyone,
I wanted to share with you an initiative that President Obama introduced last week at the National League of Cities conference called, TechHire. https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/technology/techhire
TechHire is almost identical to an initiative we launched late last year called, Code the Town. Our initiative consists of “coding bootcamps” that introduce the community to computer coding and seek to strengthen elementary and secondary computer science education in K – 12. Not to brag, but our program has been so successful that to date, with the help of our program partners, Sylvan Learning and Border Kids Code, we have trained over 400 kids from K – 6 and 100 K – 12 teachers. This program is a testament to the forward planning leaders that we have in the City of Mission.
In fact, while President Obama was introducing TechHire, State Representative Bobby Guerra filed House Bill 3700 to establish a pilot program in certain school districts to develop computer science education and professional development opportunities. This became a topic of interest due to Rep. Guerra’s staff being aware of the success of Code the Town.
President Obama, in his speech to the many mayors, commissioners, and public leaders at the National League of Cities conference last week, emphasized that people lacking computer science (tech) knowledge was an economic development issue. “When those jobs go unfilled, it’s a loss for American workers, for employers eager to hire, for our regional economies and for American competitiveness.” Here is a condensed video of President Obama’s 20 minute speech https://youtu.be/5lblSFF64Ho
After watching the video, it is evident that with Mission’s strong leadership and the help from our partners that the city will be perfectly situated to thrive in a 21st century economy.
GO MISSION!
Alex Meade, EDFP, CPM
Chief Executive Officer
Mission Economic Development Corporation
