[Boise, ID] - March 9th, Kount, Inc. and Hawley Troxell LLP. were the sponsors for the Idaho Technology Council Legislative Reception event to bring both legislators and citizens together in the pursuit of one goal: Informing the public about COMPUTING LITERACY. Idaho legislators have been incredible in their support of increasing COMPUTING LITERACY thus far for the rising generation throughout the state. Kount, one of Forbes' top ten Cybersecurity companies to watch for 2020, and Hawley Troxell, one Idaho's premiere full-service business law firms, both show their support for potential legislation to further this initiative.
The passing of Idaho Code 33-1633, "The Idaho Computer Science Initiatives For Public Schools", made great strides in the right direction by making computer science courses available for Idaho K-12 Public Schools. In this ever-evolving economy, it is more important now more than ever to create and implement policies to help Idaho progress further into the future! At the Idaho Technology Council's Legislative Reception, we were educated on how legislators and other policy-making players can make a stronger influence in building a better tomorrow for Idaho!
The two presenters for the reception were Jim Gasaway, Chief Technology Officer for Kount, Inc., and Reid Stephen, Chief Intelligence Officer for St. Luke's Health System.
Jim recalled his history with Idaho Technology Council and Kount’s support. Jim was instrumental in the formation of the ITC Software Alliance, which has been retitled as Computing Alliance. Much of the work done by the ITC is through the Computing Alliance. The Computing Alliance has been driving support for changes in education in K-12 and beyond.
Reid Stephen echoed Idaho’s need for computing literacy in the school system. Reid shared that his technical work force is made up of a mix of college graduates and high-school graduates, college isn’t always a requirement in the tech industry. Knowledge is. We know many high school students will not continue to college but will still be expected to have a base understanding, or standard of computer literacy. Reid also shared that with the Computing Alliance’s K-Career team, that he co-chairs with Sherawn Reberry, they will be implementing a pilot program this summer in two school districts. It will leverage an existing program, Code to Success, to bring eduction in software/web programming to those school districts. Initially this will be a summer program, in part funded by the Garff foundation as well as industry contributions. This training program will provide students an entry point into a career.