Trump Administration Tapping Tech CEOs for STEM Policy Approach

White House officials including Ivanka Trump have begun an outreach campaign to major technology, business and education leaders including Laurene Powell Jobs and Apple’s Tim Cook for advice on shaping funding approaches to science, technology, engineering and math education in U.S. public schools.

President Donald Trump’s daughter on Wednesday joined Reed Cordish, the president’s special assistant for technology initiatives, on a conference call with politicians, educators and CEOs to discuss STEM education, according to two people with knowledge of the call.

Other participants on the roughly hour-long call included Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson; Accenture North America’s CEO Julie Sweet, Microsoft President Brad Smith; Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and representatives from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Stanford, MIT and Broward County, Florida, Schools.

The effort is in its beginning stages with more outreach expected to follow, and the administration has not yet settled on details about funding or timetables for the effort, according to one of the people who discussed the call.