Apple CEO Tim Cook Urges Trump To Mandate Coding In Schools

On Monday President Trump met with some of the nation’s top tech leaders including—Jeff Bezos from Amazon, Satya Nadella from Microsoft, Tim Cook from Apple—to discuss modernizing the United States government.

During the roundtable discussion leaders, each shared their concerns surrounding the state of technology in the United States and what needed to be done to improve it. Many of the tech-company leaders echoed the familiar notion that there are not enough Americans with the technological skills needed fill jobs and advance society. Many called for the government to participate in the training (and ongoing retraining) of American workers. However, Tim Cook took his request a step further.

Turning to speak directly to Trump, Cook said, “Something I feel very passionate about is that coding should be a requirement in every public school. We have a huge deficit in the school that we need today and skills that are there, and we are trying to do our part, and hopefully more than our part, in doing that, but I think your leadership from government is also needed.”