Sec. 50501. Findings

459 words·~2 min read·/bill/116/hr/8352/ih/section-50501

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Congress finds the following: There will be 1,400,000 new tech jobs by 2020, however, 70 percent of those jobs will be unfulfilled at the rate United States universities are currently producing qualified graduates. Communities of color (African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders) are woefully underrepresented in corporate leadership roles, including the technology sector. African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders are disproportionately underrepresented in the technology sector.

Black and Hispanic workers in the science and engineering workforce continue to be underrepresented, Black employees represent 11 percent of the United States workforce but only 9 percent of the science and engineering workforce, and Hispanic employees represent 16 percent of the United States workforce but only 7 percent of the science and engineering workforce. The share of women working in science and engineering jobs has held steady around 50 percent since 1990, but the share of women in specific fields has varied from 47 percent in life sciences to only 25 percent in computer science.

Women of color represent less than 10 percent of all computer science professionals (African American: 5.7 percent; Hispanic: 6.4 percent; American Indian or Alaska Native: 0.1 percent; and Asian: 22.9 percent). 50 to 70 percent of employees in tech companies work in non-tech positions, for which an existing pipeline of qualified African Americans and Latinos currently exists. A pipeline of qualified technical candidates is critical as the tech industry improves its recruiting, hiring, and retaining of candidates and employees of color.

Underrepresented minority students overall face an opportunity gap in STEAM education. Women of color particularly face an achievement gap in science and engineering education. In 2015, women were conferred nearly a third of all science and engineering degrees. In 2015, women of color received only 13 percent of all science and engineering degrees (Black: 3.2 percent; Hispanic: 3.9 percent; Native American or Alaskan Native: 0.2 percent; Asian or Pacific Islander: 4.5 percent; and multi-racial: 1.2 percent).

Women overall face a large opportunity gap in computer science. Only 18 of all bachelor’s degrees conferred in computer science went to women in 2015. In 2015, women of color received only 9 percent of degrees conferred in computer science (Black: 3 percent; Hispanic: 2 percent; Native American or Alaska Native: 0.8 percent; and Asian or Pacific Islander: 3 percent). The opportunity and achievement gap between boys and girls starts early. In 2017, 22 percent of high schools offered the Advanced Placement

(AP)Computer Science course, and only 35 percent of high schools teach computer science. In 2018, 28 percent of AP Computer Science test takers were girls, and 21 percent were African American or Latino. There is a dearth of disaggregated data to show academic attainment across different Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities.