Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that high school enrollment in computer science courses nearly doubled in the fall semester.
The number of students taking at least one computer science course was 23,544, up from 12,547 in the same semester a year ago. The increase comes after Hutchinson signed a bill into law in 2021 requiring students to take a computer science course before graduating.
A 2015 measure that Hutchinson signed into law required every public high school to offer computer science. Since then, the number of computer science teachers across the state has grown from 50 to more than 800.
"It is exciting to see the historic increase in students getting exposure to computer skills that will be beneficial for the future economy," Hutchinson said in a news release, "Arkansas continues to be ahead of the curve by offering computer coding in our classrooms and giving teachers the resources they need to teach the future workforce."
The Associated Press contributed information to this report.
