Co-authored by Michael Preston (CSNYC) and Julie Samuels (Tech:NYC)
Dear Governor Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Flanagan, Assembly Speaker Heastie, and all members of the New York State legislature,
We represent the city’s robust and growing technology sector. Together, the companies we run and invest in are responsible for roughly 300,000 jobs, and our industry generates nearly 15 percent of the city’s total tax revenue. Between 2007 and 2014, tech employment in the city grew 57 percent, nearly six times faster than overall citywide employment growth. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects more than 1.4 million computer specialist job openings nationally by 2020.
Yet our industry is increasingly concerned that we will not be able to fill these jobs.
This is why we must create a pipeline right here in New York City’s public schools that gives our 1.1 million students — fewer than five percent of whom currently have access to computer science education — the opportunity to learn the skills that will put them on a path to college and career success in a technical field.
The good news is the tide has started to turn. In September 2015, Mayor de Blasio announced Computer Science for All (CS4All), a 10-year, $80 million public-private partnership to offer computer science to every student and every school in the city. This is an unprecedented effort to expand a new content area inside urban schools, and it will train nearly 5,000 teachers across all grade levels, K-12.
Without mayoral control of the school system, this initiative would never have gotten off the ground or received the operating capacity and budget it needs to succeed. CS4All requires strong leadership and a bold vision for equity and school change to ensure the schools have a 10-year timeline and the necessary support to reach all students.
The benefits of mayoral control go beyond computer science education. NYC public schools have improved significantly after more than a decade of mayoral control, including increased high school graduation and college readiness rates. Better public schools help our companies attract tech workers with school-aged children. New citywide programs like universal pre-K and middle school after school help all working families, including those in the tech sector.
For these reasons and more, we strongly urge you to extend mayoral control of schools. We are encouraged by the impressive gains our schools have made under mayoral control, and we expect this progress to continue as the CS4All partnership works for equitable access to computer science in schools and career pathways for our students.
Sincerely,
Neil Blumenthal
Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Warby Parker
Roger Ehrenberg
Managing Partner IA Ventures
Dave Gilboa
Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Warby Parker
Erik Grimmelman
President and CEO, New York Technology Council
Eliot Horowitz
Co-Founder and CTO, MongoDB
Mark Josephson
CEO, Bitly
Jocelyn Leavitt
Co-Founder and CEO, Hopscotch
Dave Morgan
Founder and CEO, Simulmedia
Brian O’Kelley
CEO, AppNexus
Michelle Peluso
Venture Partner, Technology Crossover Ventures
Serkan Piantino
Director of Engineering, Facebook NY
Michael Preston
Executive Director, CSNYC
Jessica Lawrence Quinn
Executive Director, NY Tech Meetup
Daniel Ramot
Co-Founder and CEO, Via
Andrew Rasiej
Co-Founder and CEO, Civic Hall
Kevin Ryan
Founder & Chairman, MongoDB, Zola, and Kontor
Julie Samuels
Executive Director, Tech:NYC
Reshma Saujani
CEO, Girls Who Code
Jake Schwartz
Co-Founder and CEO, General Assembly
Yancey Strickler
Co-Founder and CEO, Kickstarter
David Tisch
Managing Partner, BoxGroup
Judson Traphagen
Partner, Plough Penny Partners
Fred Wilson
Managing Partner, Union Square Ventures
