Obama Computer Science Initiative

President Obama has started the week with another list of badass projects aimed at improving the country. Now that his second term is slowly coming to an end, Obama has seemingly loosened up—showing more of his personality and taking bolder steps to go forward in his agenda, regardless of how much it turns off (or energizes) his Republican opponents.

Last week alone, Obama launched executive orders to close the gender wage gap, banned the use of solitary confinement for juveniles and posted a recall on extra, unnecessary military equipment being housed at our nation’s police stations.

This week, Obama is making even more exciting developments by meeting with Vice President Joe Biden and their new task force on cancer, as well as unleashing his latest initiative on increasing computer science education for girls and children of color. On Wednesday, Obama will also be visiting an American mosque (a first in his seven years as president) to urge peace and solidarity for the Muslim community.

Here’s the gist of these three main things that you want to know about that are one the president’s agenda this week:

Up First: Obama & Biden Begin Fighting Cancer With Operation ‘Moonshot’

Obama Meets With Task Force Over Billion-Dollar Effort To Cure Cancer

Source: SAUL LOEB / Getty

In addition to holding a meeting today to begin the Moonshot Cancer Task Force, the White House says that President Obama will ask for $755 million out of year’s budget for his efforts in fighting cancer. $195 million was previously set aside for the current fiscal year.

The first set of money is to go towards new cancer research at the National Institutes of Health to mobilize new cancer treatment options and detection practices. It will also go towards new prevention efforts, specifically for developing a vaccine. Obama’s statement on the White House website says that part of the task force’s aim is to build collaborations among doctors, charities, patients, cancer advocates, and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

Obama first made noise about the project at his final State of the Union last January when he named Vice President Biden as “mission control.” The task force has been named “moonshot” after one of Biden’s soundbites discussing his goal of finding a cure to cancer during his announcement that he would not be running for president in 2016. Biden linked his decision to sitting out on the current race for the sake of his grieving family. Biden’s own son, Beau Biden, the 46-year-old former attorney general of Delaware, had died of brain cancer last May.

Biden now says that his goal is to accomplish in five years of cancer research and treatment advances that were previously slated for the next decade. Experts claim that a cure for cancer could be just upon the horizon, but that putting a five-year deadline on the initiative could set false hopes.

The Moonshot Task Force is made up of 13 federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Defense Department.

Up Next: Obama Puts Girls & Children Of Color First In New Computer Science Program

Obama’s ‘Computer Science For All’ Asserts That Teaching Tech Is A Must For Today’s Children

US President Barack Obama, alongside Sec

Source: SAUL LOEB / Getty

Also coming off of the president’s State of the Union speech, Obama is calling for a $4 billion initiative behind expanding computer science education in America’s schools.

Entitled, “Computer Science For All,” the initiative is being pushed after it was revealed that not one Black student took an AP exam in computer science last year, a divide that was drawn deeper when it was also found that girls took the exam in considerably smaller numbers.

Obama is projecting a $4 billion dollar budget to be spread out to schools over the next three years in states that outline proposals on their plans to better integrate computer science into educational programming. Another $100 million to be directly sent to districts as competitive grants that successfully pitch plans to spread computer science teaching for students that could be imitated across the country.

The president insists that computer science education is just as important as learning to read, write, and do mathematics in today’s economy. By broadening access to this kind of education, his goal is to even the playing field for girls and racial minorities that have historically been underrepresented in the STEM fields.

John King, the Secretary of Education has voiced his support for “Computer Science For All,” saying:

“If all do our part we can create a movement that not only gets our students ready for the future, but gives them a voice in shaping that future.”

Up Next: Obama Shows Solidarity With Muslims In First Mosque Visit As President

Obama To Take A Stand For American Muslims In Upcoming Speech For Baltimore Islamic Group

Source: ADEK BERRY / Getty

Prompted by the growing issue of hate crimes against Muslims, President Obama is showing his support for the Islamic community by making his first visit to an American mosque on Wednesday. This will be his first trip to a mosque in the country as president.

Obama is to speak for the Islamic Society of Baltimore in Catonsville and will meet with locals about religious freedom, according to the White House.

As pictured above, Obama visited the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta in 2010. Members of Obama’s administration are hoping that his time spent with American Muslims will assure religious leaders of his support amid Islamophobic attacks after the tragedies in Paris and San Bernardino.

The visit is also symbolically important because of the anti-Muslim rhetoric and proposals that have been pushed by leading Republican presidential candidates, most notably Donald Trump. Among many things, Trump has gained notoriety in the race for his push to ban Muslims from entering the country.

This the second time Obama will be spending time in Baltimore over the course of a week; on Thursday, the president made remarks with House Democrats for a yearly retreat. Obama will also be speaking at a Holocaust remembrance ceremony at the Israeli Embassy in D.C. and at the National Prayer Breakfast on Thursday.

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