Thank you for the opportunity to speak briefly about Youth Tech Entrepreneurs, a program that teaches young people to be computer teachers, technicians, and entrepreneurs in service to their community. Information technology has revolutionized the workplace, but it has not yet revolutionized the schools.
Teachers still rely on much of the same tools and content that they used a century ago.
More distressing than the scarcity of computer equipment in schools is the lack of computer support and training for teachers. There is one computer troubleshooter for every 700 teachers and students in Massachusetts public schools. In contrast, the typical private sector ratio is 1 to 50. As a result, the skill requirements of the late 20th century workplace have increased much faster than public education's capacity to respond to them, and today's students are being left behind. Founded in 1997 with the close support of the Massachusetts Department of Education, YTE is a non-profit organization that YTE trains high school students to provide computer support and training for their schools.