(Bloomberg) -- Executives of Walmart Inc., Delta Air Lines Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and Amazon.com Inc. are among more than 500 who have joined an effort by Code.org urging governors and state education officials to ensure that all US elementary and high school students have the chance study computer science as demand rises for workers in computer programming, cybersecurity and data science. 

The letter is timed to coincide with a meeting this week of the National Governors Association where Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson will ask his colleagues to bolster computer education for K-12 students across the nation. Hadi Partovi, chief executive officer of Code.org, said he’s hoping for commitments from all 50 states. Just 5% of US high school students now study computer science while the country has 700,000 vacant computer jobs, according to the organization, which was founded almost 10 years ago to boost access to computer science education, particularly for young women and members of underrepresented groups. 

Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and CEO Satya Nadella, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and CEO Andy Jassy and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Mark Zuckerberg are among those who have signed the letter — although that’s not surprising, Partovi said. But as computers and software are now critical to every company, business leaders from a variety of sectors outside tech want US schools to catch up. 

“Every industry has become a technology industry — even farming has become a high tech sector,” Partovi said in an interview. “Manufacturing is a high-tech sector. Autos are a high-tech sector. In Detroit the hardest to hire job type is software. No matter what field you're in, you need to figure out how are you going to satisfy your your needs for technical talent. 

Computer science access has been increasing and the issue has bipartisan support — since Code.org’s founding, 51% of K-12 schools now offer access to computer science education compared with 10% about a decade ago, Partovi said, 

But more is needed particularly to address groups who have been left out — the biggest gap is among Native American students on tribal lands. Lower-income neighborhoods and those with larger populations of Black and Latinx students, as well rural areas, are also less likely to offer computer science education. Girls are still less likely to take the courses even when offered, according to the group.

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