One of the “issues” with advocates is that they tend to ignore how the “improvements” they suggest will fit within existing structures. This is a significant challenge when proposing additions to a space/time limited system such as education. There are plenty of purposes to which education could be put and many have loud advocates, but I tend to wonder what will happen to make room. The alternatives would seem to be watering down offerings or replacing existing offerings with something new. There are issues with both. What can be watered down when the success of existing efforts have already been challenged? What is fair game for replacement? Consider the backlash generated by reductions in art, music, PE.
Coding falls into the “I want to be part of the party” theme. Doing a good job of teaching coding requires preparation and to do a good job some approaches are better than others. Those pushing for more CS make this very point and make suggestions for specific preparation. I don’t see many districts hiring a faculty member specific to CS courses so even the teacher preparation must confront the space/time issue. Some preservice teachers may commit to adding this specialization. Specific methods courses will require appropriate faculty and preservice teachers wanting to take such courses (and probably some programming courses to develop content knowledge) will have to deal with these added expectations. College and university budgets are not presently being expanded and colleges of ed tend not to be at the head of the line when resources are available. The approach here might involve specialization with some institutions cutting back in other areas to offer this type of preparation. Unlike secondary education, every teacher preparation program does not have to prepare all categories of teachers.
As I have explained before, I also am concerned that the push for dual-credit and advanced placement courses adds to the pressure that limits school flexibility.
There seem to be many unanswered questions here. Advocacy is the easy part. Who makes the decisions about the trade-offs? Would that be the administrators?