Legislature(2017 - 2018)CAPITOL 106
01/25/2018 12:00 PM House LABOR & COMMERCE
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| Presentation: Workforce Readiness, by Ryan Harkins, Director of Government Affairs, Microsoft | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
JOINT MEETING
HOUSE LABOR AND COMMERCE STANDING COMMITTEE
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
January 25, 2018
11:48 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
HOUSE LABOR AND COMMERCE STANDING COMMITTEE
Representative Sam Kito, Chair
Representative Adam Wool, Vice Chair
Representative Chris Birch
Representative Gary Knopp
Representative Colleen Sullivan-Leonard
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
Representative Harriet Drummond, Chair
Representative Jennifer Johnston
MEMBERS ABSENT
HOUSE LABOR AND COMMERCE STANDING COMMITTEE
Representative Andy Josephson
Representative Louise Stutes
Representative Mike Chenault (alternate)
Representative Bryce Edgmon (alternate)
HOUSE EDUCATION STANDING COMMITTEE
Representative Justin Parish, Vice Chair
Representative Zach Fansler
Representative Ivy Spohnholz
Representative Chuck Kopp
Representative David Talerico
Representative Lora Reinbold (alternate)
Representative Geran Tarr (alternate)
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
PRESENTATION: WORKFORCE READINESS
- HEARD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
No previous action to record
WITNESS REGISTER
RYAN HARKINS, Director
Public Policy
Microsoft Corporation
Seattle, Washington
POSITION STATEMENT: Offered a PowerPoint Presentation on
Computer Science Education & Workforce Development.
ACTION NARRATIVE
12:01:48 PM
CHAIR SAM KITO called the joint meeting of the House Labor and
Commerce Standing Committee and the House Education Standing
Committee to order at 11:48 a.m. Representatives Knopp,
Sullivan-Leonard, and Kito from the House Labor and Commerce
Standing Committee were present at the call to order.
Representatives Birch and Wool from the House Labor and Commerce
Standing Committee and Representatives Johnston and Drummond
from the House Education Standing Committee arrived as the
meeting was in progress.
^PRESENTATION: Workforce Readiness, By Ryan Harkins, Director
of Government Affairs, Microsoft
PRESENTATION: Workforce Readiness
12:03:15 PM
CHAIR KITO announced that the only order of business would be a
presentation entitled "Workforce Readiness," by Ryan Harkins,
Director of Government Affairs, Microsoft Corporation.
12:03:57 PM
RYAN HARKINS, Director, Public Policy, Microsoft Corporation,
offered a PowerPoint Presentation on Computer Science Education
& Workforce Development. He said he would talk about trends,
challenges, and opportunities in workforce development and the
education and skills necessary to secure the jobs that are being
created this century. He said he would like to hear what
Alaska's challenges are in the workforce, and he invited the
committee to ask questions at any point during the presentation.
In response to a question from Representative Birch, he said his
presentation is not geared toward any product but to provide an
overview of trends and talk about what other states are doing to
expand access to computer science education and other training
programs.
MR. HARKINS stated that Microsoft Corporation's mission is to
empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve
more, and the corporation provides the tools to help people
accomplish their goals. He said the U.S. is facing a major
workforce crisis: there are too few people with the necessary
skills to fill industry jobs.
12:08:19 PM
MR. HARKINS talked about the first industrial revolution [1760-
1840], as shown on slides 3 and 4 of the PowerPoint, which
brought the Transcontinental Railroad, which shortened the time
it took to cross the states from over three months to about a
week. He said the second industrial revolution [1870-1940], as
shown on slide 5, brought the telegraph and telephone and
allowed mass production. Slide 6 shows New York City in 1905,
when it took 100,000 horses to keep the city moving and 25
percent of the country's agricultural output went just to feed
the horses. People had jobs caring for and training the horses,
cleaning up after the horses, and driving carriages through city
streets. The same intersection in New York City is shown in
1925, on slide 7, which shows that the horses were by then
replaced by automobiles. All those equine-related jobs
disappeared and were replaced by new jobs. He stated,
"Innovation made the economy more dynamic; and so, while there
was great upheaval, there was also great opportunity; and it's
not all that dissimilar to what we're seeing today." Mr.
Harkins said the third industrial revolution [1960-2015], shown
on slides 8-10, was brought on by the microprocessor, the
personal computer (PC). He said Bill Gates' ambitious goal was
to place a PC on every desk in every home; now there are smart
phones "in every hand and in every pocket," he said.
12:11:22 PM
MR. HARKINS said all this has led to what some call "the fourth
industrial revolution," as shown on slides 11-18, which is
primarily Cloud computing - the use of massive data centers to
collect and process huge volumes of information extremely
quickly. He said Cloud computing is transforming many aspects
of society, including manufacturing, education, finance,
government, healthcare, and even agriculture. He said this is
also creating a lot of angst, because jobs that used to provide
solid, middleclass incomes have disappeared and other jobs will
disappear in the future. For example, he indicated that the use
of autonomous vehicles in the future will make jobs such as
long-distance truck driving and taxicab driving obsolete.
MR. HARKINS said the good news is that many new jobs are coming
available. The number one source of new jobs today is in the
computer field. He clarified that these jobs are not only in
the technology industry but in every industry across the
country, because "every organization today has a need for people
with computing skills." The ability to use PowerPoint and Excel
are skills that are in demand, he said. Further, jobs are being
created for those who can write software and develop hardware,
for instance.
12:14:49 PM
REPRESENTATIVE SULLIVAN-LEONARD asked how Alaska compares to
other states in meeting the demands Mr. Harkins spoke about, as
well as "being computer-savvy."
MR. HARKINS indicated that the answer is on slide 19, which
shows a line graph depicting job growth in the U.S. economy. As
shown on slide 23, he relayed that currently there are over
500,000 [unfilled] computer jobs, yet each year there are only
about 43,000 graduates with the requisite degree or credentials
necessary to fill those positions. He said this information is
available on Code.org, a website he described as a nonprofit
advocacy organization whose mission is to expand access to
computer science education. As shown on slide 24, he informed
the committee that currently in Alaska there are over 655 open
computing jobs, which is almost two and a half times the state's
average demand, yet on average Alaska is producing only 25
computer science graduates each year. He said computer-related
jobs in Alaska pay, on average, $85,000. He said just about
every other state is also facing the same gap.
MR. HARKINS referred to slide 25 and said the information on it
was sourced from the Brookings Institute. He said it is clear
that computer science education pays off in the long run. As
shown on the slide, the average high school graduate will earn
about $580,000 in his/her lifetime; college graduates will earn
about double that in their lives; and computer science graduates
will earn incomes 40 percent higher than the average incomes of
college graduates.
12:17:57 PM
MR. HARKINS addressed the issue of the gap [slide 26] and, as
shown on slide 27, stated that the majority of schools don't
teach computer science. He stated that 90 percent of parents
want their children to study computer science but only 40
percent of schools teach computer programming. Part of the
challenge is that there are not enough qualified teachers to
teach computer science. He then covered information on slides
28-33, regarding advanced placement (AP) Computer Science exam
participation. He said the trend for taking the exam is
increasing. Last year, countrywide, there were just under
100,000 [students] that took the exam, which is a huge increase
over where it was in previous years. He noted that while the
numbers are not optimal, they are increasing: in 2017, just
over 20,000 underrepresented minorities and 26,000 females took
the exam. In Alaska, 68 students took the exam, five of which
were underrepresented minorities, and 17 females in Alaska took
the exam.
12:20:34 PM
REPRESENTATIVE KNOPP questioned whether not only the lack of
computer science classes in kindergarten through twelfth grade
(K-12) but also the cost of attaining a four-year degree may be
detrimental to the goal of producing more workers skilled in
computer science.
MR. HARKINS said that is correct that traditionally computer
science skills have not been taught in K-12. He said access to
college education should be expanded to those who need it;
however, not everyone goes to college, and there are other
things that can be done, such as post-secondary training, so
that people can acquire the necessary skills to fill the jobs
being created. Nevertheless, he said the numbers show that
getting a post-graduate degree in computer science does "pay
off."
12:24:08 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DRUMMOND asked Mr. Harkins to bridge the gap
between the charts on the slides that show the numbers of people
who have taken AP computer science exams and those earning
computer science degrees in college.
MR. HARKINS responded that data shows when children are exposed
to computer science in high school, if not earlier, they are
more likely to major in computer science in college; this is
especially true for underrepresented minorities and females.
The number of AP exams being taken connects the two. He said
there is also a need to provide skills to those not going to
college, and that can be through high school curriculum and
programs that provide additional training and certification
after high school. He stated Microsoft Corporation would like
to see all the above.
12:27:32 PM
REPRESENTATIVE WOOL related that his daughter learned some
coding while participating in robotics in elementary school. He
asked Mr. Harkins if he thinks subjects, such as traditional
mathematics or others, that are rarely applied post-high school,
are overemphasized. He then asked Mr. Harkins to comment on how
the rapidly changing field of computer science may affect those
studying it.
MR. HARKINS said it is fun to be around children who are
learning computer science skills for the first time, and he
expressed hope that the experiences would encourage more females
to enter the field of computer science. He said he would not
suggest replacing traditional mathematics instruction with
computer science but rather to add additional computer science
instruction to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM) instruction. He allowed that perhaps there is always a
need to provide practical application of knowledge to the
workplace experience, and he thinks computer science education
can be a part of that. Mr. Harkins said Microsoft Corporation
encourages states to develop computer science standards in a
curriculum. He reported that Arkansas was the first state in
the country to adopt K-12 computer science standards, and as a
result has seen a 350 percent increase in the number of students
taking computer science. He said there are 12 states that have
adopted computer science standards and several other states that
are working to do so. There is a model available for states to
use that was developed by the national Computer Science Teachers
Association (CSTA), Code.org, and others. He related that
Virginia has become the first state in the Union to require all
K-12 teachers to incorporate computer science into their
classrooms. To Representative Wool's last comment, he said
learning languages, such as Java and C++, is relevant to the
marketplace today.
12:32:45 PM
MR. HARKINS returned to his PowerPoint presentation, to slides
35 and 36, and said one thing states can do to close the gap is
to make computer science count as a core math or science high
school graduation credit rather than being just an elective.
Pointing to slide 37, he noted that as of today, 36 states have
made computer science count. As shown on slide 37, the
remaining states to make computer science count are Alaska,
[Hawai'i, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas,
Iowa, Missouri, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, and Maine]. As shown on slide 38, Mr. Harkins
said another way to close the gap is to expand the supply of
computer science teachers. He relayed that Microsoft
Corporation has a program called "Technology, Education, and
Literacy in Schools" (TEALS), which places software engineers
into the classroom with high school teachers to co-teach
computer science. As shown on slide 40, Mr. Harkins said the
program started with one TEAL volunteer and 12 students, in one
school, in 2009-10, and in 2017-18 [has 1,050 TEALS volunteers
and] 12,000 students, [in 349 schools,] in 29 states and
Washington, D.C. The volunteers come not only from Microsoft
Corporation but also from many other technological companies.
He said the goal is to bring teachers to the point where they
can teach computer science on their own. The best volunteers
are from the community, but for those communities that lack
resources, Microsoft Corporation has found a way for volunteers
to connect to the classrooms using Skype.
12:38:16 PM
MR. HARKINS directed attention to slides 41 and 42 and said
other ways to close the gap are to create teacher certification
pathways and computer science standards. Slide 43 shows a map
of the U.S., with 12 states depicted in purple as those with K-
12 computer science standards and the remaining states without
the standards depicted in gray. He showed slide 44, which
highlights the need to invest in career connected learning. He
said Arkansas combined traditional vocational training and
academic pathways into the same standards to help all students
whether they continue to college or not. As shown on slide 45,
he noted that Microsoft Corporation has a program called
"Imagine Academy," in which students and adults can gain new
skills and earn industry certification to demonstrate they have
those skills. He said the corporation is also developing
another track to teach people how to use and manipulate data.
He offered his understanding that Imagine Academy is now in 21
states and works with state and local governments to ensure the
program meets with their priorities.
12:42:16 PM
MR. HARKINS noted that Microsoft Corporation acquired LinkedIn,
which is a social networking website for professionals.
LinkedIn has resources that allow users to identify within a
community what jobs are available and what skills are needed to
qualify for the jobs. LinkedIn also has "a ton of workforce
data" related to jobs posted, profiles of users, and skill sets,
and the company put together an economic graph, which can help
provide a snapshot of the kinds of job opportunities that are
available in a particular community, which can be helpful
information for policy makers trying to figure out where to
direct resources.
MR. HARKINS talked about Microsoft Software & Systems Academy,
which is shown on slide 48. He said it is a technology boot
camp for those who are soon leaving military service. It is a
five-week program teaching skills in Cloud application
development, cyber security, [database and business intelligence
administration, and server and Cloud administration], and there
are mentors involved. He said there are 240 companies, in
addition to Microsoft Corporation, that hire graduates from this
program.
12:45:21 PM
MR. HARKINS, bringing attention to slides 49-54, said another
issue Microsoft Corporation has been working on is world
broadband gap. He reported that 34 million Americans today lack
access to broadband, 23 million of those live in rural
communities. What may have been an inconvenience 10 years ago
is now "a huge opportunity gap." He said it is prohibitively
expensive to bring broadband to an area; putting fiber in the
ground costs $30-$40 grand per mile. He surmised it would not
even be possible in some communities in Alaska. He said
Microsoft Corporation launched a new rural broadband initiative
[last] summer, which uses television (TV) "white spaces." He
explained that there is a base station consisting of a radio
tower among other things, and that is connected to the Internet,
and then a signal can be broadcast over an area of about a 10-
mile radius. The advantage of this system is that it's much
less expensive to get broadband up and running. The signals
travel further and go through obstacles much better than higher
frequency signals like cellular companies use. He added, "And
so, literally, if you're in a home or a school or a small
business on the other end, you have a radio, which can receive
the signal from the radio antenna, translate it into Wi-Fi in
your house, and you simply open your laptop and connect to the
Internet the way folks in Anchorage do."
12:48:28 PM
MR. HARKINS, in response to a question from Chair Kito, said the
Internet speed resulting from TV white space is what Microsoft
Corporation calls "good enough." The Federal Communication
Commission's (FCC's) definition of broadband is "25 megabits per
second down and 3 megabits per second up." He explained that
while it does not compare to fiber or 5G, a person who uses TV
white space can stream a movie. Some exceptionally remote areas
use satellite, he noted. He said that TV white space is the
most cost-efficient way to reach those in certain areas.
Bringing fiber to every house in the U.S. would cost $65
billion; reaching every house with long-term evolution (LTE)
technologies could cost $25 billion; using a combination of
fiber, LTE, satellite, and TV white spaces could solve the
broadband gap for perhaps $8-$12 billion. In response to
Representative Wool, he confirmed that TV white space operates
"just like the broadband you have today."
12:50:37 PM
MR. HARKINS, bringing attention to slide 56, stated that over
the course of nine years, Microsoft Corporation has launched
nearly 40 rural broadband [shown as "airband" on slide 56]
initiative pilots across the world, including those in
mountainous terrain. He said the corporation's goal is to
convince the government and the private sector to get involved
and start their own projects. He explained that Microsoft
Corporation partners with local Internet service providers; it
pours analytics and money into projects by investing capital for
the infrastructure, and when the corporation earns back its
investment, plus some earnings, it pulls out of the project and
leaves it to the Internet provider to run. This process is
repeated to expand the network, with the goal of reaching [in
five years] 2 million of the 23 million Americans that don't
currently have broadband; the corporation's bolder and more
ambitious goal is to reach all 23 million in that amount of
time.
12:53:28 PM
CHAIR KITO asked if Microsoft Corporation has considered
"utilization of immigration to help solve some of that dearth of
computer science employees."
MR. HARKINS answered yes. He said Microsoft Corporation and
other technology companies have used the H-1B visa program that
allows them to bring in workers highly skilled in computer
science from other countries. For example, Microsoft
Corporation's CEO, Satya Nadella, is from India. He noted that
the H-1B visa program is criticized by some. He said Microsoft
had proposed a program that would have allowed technological
companies to continue bringing in H-1B visa holders to fill the
current need in the U.S. while also requiring those companies to
donate money, perhaps $15,000 for each individual brought in
under the H-1B visa, to help expand access to computer science
education for children in the U.S. He said that is still a
project that Microsoft Corporation would support, because if
more were done to increase the number of U.S. citizens who
become proficient in computer science, then less people from
outside the U.S. would be needed to fill the gap, which he
opined would be a good thing for communities.
12:55:45 PM
REPRESENTATIVE JOHNSTON asked how many other computer science
programs there are besides Code.org and Imagine Academy. She
said she knows Google Inc. is one of the investors in Code.org,
and she asked if Microsoft Corporation is also one of the
investors.
MR. HARKINS answered that Microsoft Corporation is a supporter
of Code.org, as are a number of other companies and
institutions. The corporation's philanthropy arm has education
policy employees who work closely with Code.org on projects such
as helping states create K-12 computer science standards.
CHAIR KITO expressed appreciation for Mr. Harkins presentation.
He said he is especially interested in the opportunities for
Alaska regarding the white space initiative. He expressed
further interest in ensuring that computer science education is
made relevant to the communities in which the students live.
12:57:45 PM
REPRESENTATIVE DRUMMOND stated that she found the presentation
valuable in terms of pointing "us" in the right direction. She
asked if Microsoft Corporation has worked with the federal
Department of Education on getting standards on the Every
Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). She said Alaska's Department of
Education is in the process of getting its ESSA plans approved
and is "kind of far along in that process." She said she would
like to provide Mr. Harkins a better map that illustrates how
difficult it is to provide broadband to all of Alaska. She
questioned what exists, in terms of TV white spaces, in
Shishmaref, Alaska, for example. She said Alaska's
accessibility issues make it probably the most difficult and
expensive place in the world to deliver broadband.
MR. HARKINS admitted that during a Western Governors'
Association Meeting, Governor Bill Walker of Alaska pointed out
to him that Alaska was not even on the map; therefore, he
suggested that "a movement in the right direction" had been made
[since Alaska is shown on the map on slide 57].
REPRESENTATIVE DRUMMOND agreed, but she observed that on the map
Alaska and Hawai'i had been relegated to the lower left corner.
MR. HARKINS, to Representative Drummond's mention of ESSA, said
he knows people from Microsoft Corporation's education policy
team were engaged with ESSA and in trying to ensure funds under
that law would be available for STEM and computer science
education. He told Representative Drummond that that team would
welcome conversation regarding the details of ESSA and computer
science standards related to the law.
1:01:22 PM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committees, the joint
meeting of the House Labor and Commerce Standing Committee and
House Education Standing Committee was adjourned at 1:01 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| Computer Science and Workforce Development - Alaska (rev) 4.pdf |
HL&C 1/25/2018 12:00:00 PM |
Presentation - Workforce Readiness |