Apple’s Tim Cook Barnstorms for ‘Moral Responsibility’
He said he had chosen to focus on getting the curriculum to community colleges, rather than four-year colleges, because “as it turns out, the community college system is much more diverse than the four-year schools, particularly the four-year schools
that are known for comp sci.” He noted that “there is a definite diversity issue in tech, in particular in coding and computer scientists.”
Apple has already rolled out the curriculum in Alabama, Ohio and Pennsylvania, among other states.
Admittedly, Mr. Cook is not helping students learn how to code in languages for his competitors,
but he said, “I think it’s significantly transferable.”
He continued, with a laugh: “We know that people making a mobile app, many of them are going to make iOS apps and Android apps.
“I think we have a moral responsibility to help grow the economy, to help grow jobs, to contribute to this country
and to contribute to the other countries that we do business in,” he said.
And so it does fall, I think, not just on business but on all other areas of society to step up.”
That was Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, across the table from me over breakfast here in downtown Austin late last week at the end of
a mini-tour across the country during which he focused on topics usually reserved for politicians: manufacturing, jobs and education.
“You want it to increase the diversity of people that are in there, both racial
diversity, gender diversity, but also geographic diversity,” Mr. Cook said.