To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter Wed May 7 17:11:40 PDT 2014 The industry lobbyists have always been using the line, "We have tech labor shortage, which we must remedy through domestic education in the long run, but which we must fill with H-1Bs for now." They've been saying that for more than 15 years, so one wonders just what they mean by "long run," and in any case it has been shown by numerous studies during that time that we actually don't have a shortage in the first place. Nevertheless, the lobbyists know that that line works, so they continue to use it. Organizations such as the EPI, NRC, CRA and so on that have shown that we don't have a shortage don't have loud enough voices to compete with the deep-pockets industry lobbyists, and in the CRA's case they have their own veted interests. So, we continue to see PR stunts to push the "shortage" claim. The latest is a letter to be sent by some prominent tech CEOs to California Governor Jerry Brown, urging that California include more computer courses, including programming, in K-12 schools: http://www.sfgate.com/technology/article/Tech-leaders-lobby-for-coding-classes-in-5458627.php The article doesn't mention a shortage, but the letter itself will do so, I'll bet. At least two of the reported signatores, Houston and Hastings, have been very active in the H-1B issue, and you can see the shortage issue brought in explicitly in a similar call for including CS in K-12 schools: http://www.i-programmer.info/news/150-training-a-education/5540-zuckerberg-gates-and-more-promoting-computing-in-schools.html All this is absurd. California schools are BROKE, and the kids at the bottom are struggling, yet those CEOs want the state to devote its meager educational rosources in a new direction that (a) is not necessary and (b) is actually harmful. By the latter I mean that the vast majority of teachers would not have the necessary background, and would develop bad programming habits in the kids. Even if not, what is the rush? In the too-bizarre-to-be-fiction department, consider this article, titled "Five-year-olds to learn programming and algorithms in major computing curriculum shake-up": http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2280072/fiveyearolds-to-learn-programming-and-algorithms-in-major-computing-curriculum-shakeup This is something that sounds like satiricial journalism such as The Onion, or the San Francisco Chronicle's Bad Reporter cartoon series (read "BAD reporter," as in "BAD dog, BAD dog"). This is especially sad, though, because it is driven by clever PR people rather than societal needs. This also is a classic example of how multiple entities with vested interests can ally to form a politically powerful juggernaut. Not only are the tech firms pushing this curriculum change, but also the educators (great way to get more funding). The Association of Computer Machinery, dominated by the industry and academia (the latter again having vested interests) has also called for teaching programming to kids. Meanwhile, USCIS has announced that it has firmed up its plans to give work privileges to some spouses of H-1Bs. As with any new regulatory policy, there soom will be a public Request for Comments, and you can bet that those with vested interests will inundate the government with "comments." We've been in Shanghai and Hong Kong for the last 10 days. (My wife is from both places, and we often go there.) Yesterday we were chatting with a government civil servant. I asked her if the unemployment rate in HK is high these days, as I had seen a number of working-age men eating in restaurants with their families during working hours. She answered yes, and attributed it to the HK government's policy of allowing a large number of immigrants from inland China to move to HK. (HK, formerly British, is a Special Administrative Region of China, and one needs permission to move there--actually, to anywhere in the country--from China proper.) The woman expressed frustration that the government doesn't care about the well being of its citizens, and simply wants to satisfy the business community's desire for cheap labor. Sound familiar? Note for instance the recent article by Computerworld's Pat Thibodeau along these lines. Norm Archived at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/Archive/KidsProgramming.txt