Assembly Bill 2097, which mandates that every public high school in California offer a computer science course, faces a critical decision in the state Legislature. If the bill does not advance from the Senate Appropriations Committee, it will fail, perpetuating existing inequities in computer science education across the state. A 2021 report revealed that only 42% of California high schools offered computer science in the 2018-19 school year, with just 5% of students enrolled. The percentage of schools offering the course has increased slightly to 45% by 2023, but California remains below the national average of 57.5%.
