Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Appears on CNBC Squawk Box to Discuss Computer Science for All

September 29, 2015

Andrew Ross Sorkin: Welcome back to Squawk Box this morning. New York City public schools are getting ready to offer computer science courses to all students, with a goal of reaching all public schools by 2025. The city plans to spend over $80 million dollars, half of which they expect to raise privately, hoping to help students stay competitive in today’s jobs market. Joining us right now on the set – our newsmakers of the morning – New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is here, along with Union Square Ventures Managing Partner Fred Wilson, who’s been pushing for a program like this for quite some time. He founded the New York City Foundation for Computer Science Education, and is working with them mayor on this – congratulations to both of you. 

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you. 

Sorkin: So, how did this happen?

Mayor: It happened because Fred Wilson and some other good folks realized that if we were going to prepare our kids for the 21st-century economy, we needed computer science education to be part of our curriculum overall, not just for a small number of kids. About five percent of our kids in New York City public schools get computer science education today.

Rebecca Quick: That number stuns me.

Mayor: It’s amazing, and it’s not going to build the workforce of the future and the capacity the kids need to succeed in a modern economy. So, Fred really deserves a lot of credit for leading the way, saying there was something that we could reach. And the more we talked about it the more we said, why shouldn’t this be throughout the entire school system? Every grade – every grade – kids should experience some form or another of computer science education. We’re going to get this done over the next 10 years. It will obviously be the largest school system in America devoted to ensuring that every kid has this opportunity. 

Unknown: So now you’re on the hook to raise some money?

Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures: We’ve raised about 35 percent of it, and hopefully the people out there listening are going to get excited about helping us come up with the rest. 

Sorkin: And the money goes towards what? How much of this is going to be for teachers – teacher retraining? And also, how much of it is just for the technology itself – computers?

Wilson: Well, the technology itself – actually, the city is making a very large investment right now in broadband connectivity to the schools and laptop carts in the schools. So, the $80 million dollars for the computer science education, it doesn’t include the significant investment – do you know the school system is making a very significant investment in wiring and putting technology into the schools, which is in addition to the $80 million?

Mayor: That’s right. And look, we – I think this is going to be transcendent for our kids. It’s fantastic that we’re getting such support from the private sector. And this has been a real enthusiastic response. Fred’s been deeply involved – AOL, the Robin Hood Foundation – but many others are coming to the fore because this is good for everyone. We’ve said for a while now, we have to reorient our schools to the reality of the modern economy, not just where will the jobs be – like our tech sector. By the way, our tech sector’s growing six times faster than the rest of our economy in New York City. That tells us a lot. I’m thrilled to say, since I’ve come into office, we have 177,000 more jobs in this town over the last 21 months, but a lot of that we know will continue to be the tech sector. We have to prepare our young people for it. And we need to get the business community into our schools, helping us make our curriculums appropriate to where the economy is going. 

Joe Kernen: And that’s important, because if you say anything – mayor, or Fred – if you say anything about slowing spending to schools, you automatically hate children and want everybody to fail, right? I mean that’s sort of, like, the automatic response. But the U.S. spends more than any developed nation on education per people – about 50 percent more than the average OECD nation. So if we’re spending more on technology, which we probably should, what needs to go? The curriculums seem dated.

Mayor: I think it has been dated. You know, when it comes to preparing kids who go into the workforce – career and technical education – one of the things we found when we came into office, a lot of the skills being taught weren’t the pertinent skills for this job market. We know where the economy’s going, and so want to reorient the curriculum to what’s going to work for our young people, but the capacity just wasn’t there. So, one of the beauties of this plan is we’re going to teach all of our teachers who need it – how to be – how to integrate computer science education into everything they do. We’re not saying kids will just go into standalone computer science courses. We’re saying computer science education could be part of obviously math –

Kernen: Cause in many ways, the kids are well ahead of the teachers.

Mayor: Yes.

Kernen: It may not be pure computer science, but they know more about the workings than the teachers do. 

Wilson: Well, Andrew asked the question – where the money’s going – most is going to teacher training. We’re going to teach 5,000 teachers – think about that – 5,000 teachers who to teach computer science. So, that’s where the money’s going. And though, you think about how much money those 5,000 teacher make – we’re going to divert hundreds of millions of dollars of salary from teaching something that’s not relevant, to something that’s highly relevant so that we make a one-time investment of $80 million dollars to take hundreds of millions of dollars of teacher’s salaries and point it towards something that’s more important. 

Quick: [inaudible]

Wilson: Well, the kids have laptop carts in the schools. So, what happens is the kids go into the classroom, they check out the laptops, they put them on their desk, and then, at the end of class, they put them back in the laptop cart. 

Sorkin: I ran into your best friend, Eva Moskowitz, over the weekend. Are charter schools going to be part of this? And how do you think about charter schools in the context of this situation?

Mayor: Look, charter schools are part of our public school system too, so of course they would be a part of this and we want to work with all of our schools. The bottom line though – we have to look at the beauty of the plan is – what we’re saying is, get our kids ready for opportunities that they’re just not ready for today. If we have a booming tech sector – and we’re very proud of that fact –what’s going to actually credential our kids to go into it? This is a groundwork that we have to set. Now, by the way, we’re also investing in our public colleges – our City University of New York – two-year STEM education programs so young people can get that kind of degree and go right into the tech sector. This is about reorienting our education system to actual skills, not just the hard skills around computer science, but the learning that goes with it – the problem-solving, the critical thinking that is implicit in computer science education. That’s the mindset kids need for today’s economy.

Quick: Mr. Mayor, while you’re here, the Clinton Global Initiative was yesterday. You weren’t attending yesterday. I don’t know if you are later. We’ve got new poll results that show if Joe Biden were to jump into the Democratic race, that he would have the strongest poll numbers coming out. But we’ve also seen Bernie Sanders picking up. You have not yet endorsed any of these candidates. What do you think about where they stand right now?

Mayor: I actually think we have a very strong Democratic field as it is right now. I think the Democratic candidates are speaking to the core economic reality that people are facing in this country. And I think they’re doing a very good job of laying out a positive vision of what we have to do. So I’ve said I’m satisfied right now that candidates we have are the right ones.

Quick: Are you leaning towards Hillary or are you leaning towards Bernie Sanders?

Mayor: Well again, that’s something I’ll keep looking at as the candidates lay out their vision.

Sorkin: Why don’t you endorse – I mean, you know Hillary –

Mayor: Sure.

Sorkin: – better than most people. You’ve worked with them. What are you waiting for?

Mayor: It’s really a matter of clarifying the vision further. And I’ve been very impressed by what’s Hillary Clinton’s put out. I’ve said this – I think with each passing week, she has added to her vision in a very compelling manner. I give her a lot of credit for that. There are still a few areas where I think we have to fill in the blanks and get a better sense of where things are going.

Sorkin: Do you have any trust deficit over this email server issue?

Mayor: No, not at all, not at all. Look, I think that she is an extraordinarily capable person – I would argue, more prepared, arguably, than anyone who has ever run for president. And I think she’s served this country very well –

Sorkin: Is there any chance you would get behind like, a Bernie Sanders?

Mayor: Again, we’re looking at all of the vision of all of the candidates. When the time comes, I’ll make that decision.

Kernen: This next question – a complete [inaudible] for the good people of New Jersey like myself – do you think that that new rail tunnel is going to get built? Because if one of these two rail tunnels from New Jersey to New York goes out, it’s an economic catastrophe. You know that.

Mayor: Yes, it has to be built.

Kernen: Or you’re going to see 80 percent reduction in commuting capacity into New York City. Your city will suffer. Do you think it’s going to get built?

Mayor: It has to get built –

Kernen: it has to get started now, Mayor. It’s going to take a decade.

Mayor: – and this is the kind of basic infrastructure investment that we need if we’re going to have a strong coherent economy. And it’s amazing – I think we can safely say a lot of our economic competitors would have already focused on this and invested in it. We have to do it right now.

Sorkin: Very quickly before we go – because we had this conversation about a month ago or two months ago right when you were about to put the kibosh on Uber and then reversed yourself – how should the business community look at – you know, talk about technology – this whole Uber experience raised some questions. People said, he – meaning you, the mayor – doesn’t get it or you’re trying to actually quash technology.

Mayor: No, it’s – first of all, let’s face it. Uber is particular. Uber has a particular business model that is not consistent with some of the other firms out there. We’re working very closely with the technology community in this city. That’s why it’s growing so intensely, in part, because there is a tremendously cooperative approach between the city government and the technology community. The approach of Uber is particular. We are not trying to find a way to work together toward a good outcome for this city.

Wilson: Hey, Andrew, just one thing on that – you know, the reason the medallion system exists in this city is because back during the Depression, everybody turned into a livery driver. And you couldn’t get around the streets of New York, so they created a medallion system to limit the number of for-hire vehicles on the streets. There has always been a cap on the number of for-hire vehicles. What this is really all about is how much of that cap is Uber going to take and how much of that cap is the yellow and greens going to take?

Sorkin: Fred Wilson, thank you. Mr. Mayor, thank you for being here. Congratulations on the program and we look forward to seeing it continue.