Ivanka Trump Spearheads $200 Million STEM Effort
WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Donald Trump will direct the Education Department to invest a minimum of $200 million in grant funding each year to expand STEM and computer science education in schools, the White House announced Monday.
The effort, which will include a "substantial pledge" from the private sector in an announcement coming Tuesday, was spearheaded by Ivanka Trump, a senior adviser to the President.
She called the presidential memorandum "an enormous step forward toward an important milestone of aligning the skills being taught in our classroom with the jobs that exist in the country."
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Female participation in computer science-related jobs has declined since 1990, and the White House's guidance to the Education Department asks "that these programs be designed with gender and racial diversity in mind," Trump said.
The Obama administration called for $4 billion for computer science education in an initiative announced in January 2016; however, that funding never materialized from Congress.
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"While the previous administration recognized that this was an important initiative, ultimately, beyond the announcement, they were not able to act upon it because they did not get the congressional legislation they needed," a senior Trump administration official said.
The Trump administration announcement directs investment from Education Department's funding and does not require additional legislation, according to Reed Cordish, also an assistant to the President.
"It directs the secretary of education to explore administrative action that will add or increase focus on computer science in existing K through 12 and post-secondary programs," Cordish said, noting that the memo signed by the President requires that an annual report be done to assess the initiative's effectiveness.
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The first daughter will travel to Detroit on Tuesday for the accompanying announcement from the private sector. On Wednesday, she will highlight STEM and computer education, visiting a public school alongside Microsoft President Brad Smith and nonprofit Code.org CEO Hadi Partovi.
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