Jim Rosica
State Sen. Jeremy Ring, a former Yahoo! executive, Thursday filed legislation that would classify “computer coding” as a foreign language for high school students.
The bill (SB 468) would also require high school students applying for Florida Bright Future college scholarships to have earned computer coding credits.
The two-page bill says “high schools must provide students opportunities to take computer coding courses of sufficient rigor … such that two credits in such courses and the earning of a related industry certification may satisfy two credits of sequential foreign language instruction.”
It also says that “in order to be eligible for an initial award from any of the three types of scholarships under the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship Program, a student must earn two credits in computer coding courses.”
Ring, a Margate Democrat, was “the first outside sales executive with Yahoo!, launching the company’s New York office from his apartment,” according to his Bloomberg News biography.
He moved to Florida in 2001, the bio says.
