How does CS4Philly (fka #TEaCH) plan to roll out K-12 tech education across town?

Bob Moul’s campaign to get computer science into Philly K-12 schools, formerly rallied around the name #TEaCH, has evolved into CS4Philly, a broader effort around which growing support from government officials.

Straight out of the gate, the effort has rallied support from government, academia and business: alongside Moul, the honorary campaign chairs feature Mayor Jim Kenney; Comcast exec David Cohen; Judd Pittman, special counsel to the Pennsylvania Department of Education; Farah Jimenez, President and CEO, Philadelphia Education Fund; and William Hite, Superintendent of the School District of Philadelphia.

“We finally got great support and people are really backing this,” said Moul, who stepped down as CEO of Cloudamize following its merger with London-based Cloudreach over the summer. “This is a massive undertaking, it could be a decade-long project.”

The initiative will kick off Dec. 6 with a press conference at City Hall.

What’s the playbook for an undertaking of this caliber?

Moul breaks it down in three buckets: the official launch, which aims to rally advocacy and awareness; a pilot to define what the digital education program will look like; and the third and deepest bucket, which is all about scaling the program across Philly schools.

Thrilled to announce that Turn5 is the latest official sponsor for #CS4Philly! Much appreciated @andrew067 and @svoudou!!joining @Comcast, @Linode, @PhilaPACT, and @HershaHotels #leadership #TEaCH pic.twitter.com/P4y3UaWh9e

— Bob Moul (@bobmoul) November 27, 2017

In a message to the Philly Startup Leaders listserv, Moul made the specific point that CS4Philly aims to “build upon (and is in no way competitive with) the amazing work already being done by great organizations like Coded by Kids, TechGirlz, BSD Academy and the District itself.”

“Thank God we have ’em,” Moul said of the organizations. “Kudos to them for leading the charge. This isn’t meant to create a competition. This problem is so big it will take all of us.”