More than 250 business leaders—including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Etsy’s Josh Silverman, and Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi—lent their names to an open letter published May 5 in The New York Times, pressing U.S. governors and education chiefs to enshrine computer science and AI as core graduation requirements in every high school. The signatories argue that such a mandate is essential to “keeping America competitive” in a rapidly evolving global economy.
Key Points:
- More than 250 CEOs signed an open letter advocating for computer science and AI as core K-12 subjects
- Just one high school CS course boosts wages by 8% for students, regardless of their career path
- The US is falling behind countries like China and South Korea that have already mandated CS/AI education
They warn that the U.S. is already falling behind peers: Brazil, China, South Korea, and Singapore have all made CS or AI mandatory for every student, while American curricula lag without a unified standard. “In the age of AI, we must prepare our children for the future — to be AI creators, not just consumers,” the letter reads.
The push follows data showing that even a single high school computer science course can yield an 8% bump in lifetime earnings, regardless of whether students go on to college or pursue tech careers. A 2025 Brookings Institution report underscores that early exposure to CS correlates with higher wages and increased employment odds by 3%.
Economists from the CSforAll coalition estimate that making CS and AI foundational could unlock up to $660 billion in economic opportunity each year, while helping close persistent skills and income gaps among underrepresented groups, especially women and low‑income students. Yet fewer than 6% of American high schoolers currently enroll in any CS course, and only 12 states require it for graduation.
That landscape is beginning to shift: 35 states have laid plans for computer science education, up from 18 in 2020 and two in 2017, and five more — Oklahoma, Georgia, Iowa, Mississippi, and New York — are poised to join within the next year. But the CEOs argue that voluntary plans won’t suffice, and that a federal—or at least multi‑state—standard is needed to ensure every student has access.
In Washington, momentum is building. On April 23, the White House issued an executive order directing federal agencies to prioritize grants for CS and AI teacher training, launch public–private partnerships for classroom resources, and convene a national AI‑education task force to track progress and gaps in K‑12 programs. The order signals that federal funding is coming; business leaders say states must be ready to deploy it.
To accelerate that readiness, Code.org and CSforAll have announced a collaboration to combine their teacher‑training pipelines, district networks, and policy advocacy efforts. Together they say they can speak “with one voice,” leverage existing infrastructure of over 100,000 trained teachers, and scale campaigns to drive the next decade of impact in the Age of AI.
What remains unclear is how already-strained public education systems would implement new computer science and AI requirements without additional funding and qualified teachers. Finding enough qualified instructors in a field where private industry often pays substantially more than education will likely remain a significant hurdle. But with a coalition this large and prominent advocating for change, the pressure on state education departments to find solutions will only intensify.