Gov. Inslee speaks at STEM summit at Microsoft

Published 4:36 pm Thursday, December 3, 2015

With a smile on his face, Gov. Jay Inslee took a question from a first-grader at Tuesday’s Washington STEM Summit at the Microsoft Conference Center.

During a fireside chat in front of a large crowd to close out the event, the student asked Inslee if he learned about STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) when he was in first grade. Inslee noted that he was fascinated with trucks as a young student, and his dad — who was a high school biology teacher — often took him to Carkeek Park in Seattle to study “the critters under the rocks” and how they filter food out of the water.

Earlier in his question-and-answer session with Mona Bailey of the Washington State Board of Education, Inslee said that every child will need to be aware of STEM courses and teachers need to make sure that those lessons are learned and replicated in school, from first grade on up.

Another topic that Inslee touched upon during the talk was the lack of gender equity, specifically women of color, in the classrooms. He said there should be more mentors from the business world visiting classrooms to discuss their jobs, “more role models (for students) to see themselves in these jobs.”

Bailey then involved Inslee in a discussion about investing more money in the school system. The governor noted that the Legislature needs to produce a plan in its next session to generate more than $3 billion for schools. He’s looking to forward to seeing this hopefully happen in the session, and he encourages people to speak with their legislators about a plan.

Inslee proudly noted that the state invested $12 million into the computer science and engineering programs at the University of Washington and Western Washington University, and $2 million into a Microsoft IT lab for students.