Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff is taking action to help make computer science an elective in San Francisco’s middle schools. Salesforce.com is gifting $5 million to the city’s public schools and $1 million to Code.org for computer science education. The company sets aside 1 percent of its equity for a foundation, 1 percent of its employees’ time as community service and 1 percent of its product as a donation.

“I’m still pushing for computer science to be added to the common core,” DiBianca said. “Some really large districts are shifting toward realizing that computer science is a really important skill and that they need to start teaching it at school. Some teachers are still trying to figure it out. They just need a little time. I have faith that we’ll get it done in San Francisco and if we keep taking important steps, we’ll be ready to go.”

“We’re really doubling down on what we learned in our first year of creating digital classrooms and we’re really focusing on computer science,” said Salesforce.com Foundation President Suzanne DiBianca. Last year, the company’s foundation donated $2.7 million to the city’s middle schools.

Computer science education through programs like Code.org will help more of the local community participate and get jobs in a technology industry that they might otherwise see as insular.

See the full article in TechCrunch.