Have educators considered introducing computer science as one of the core subject areas in elementary, middle, and high school (along with math, English, history, and science)?

Sure, many educators would like to do that. But they aren't programmers, even if they are math teachers. In many states, in order to teach computer science at the secondary level, you need a specific license for teaching that subject. I looked into it in Wisconsin, and I would have had to take at least 6 difficult programming courses, costing me many thousands of dollars, maybe even tens of thousands of dollars. If someone is qualified to teach a computer science course in a school, why would they want to go to work for a starting salary of maybe $30k? As an entry-level programmer, they could make at least $50k, probably considerably more. And they would not have half of the nation (in America, at least) calling them lazy, greedy, overpaid union thugs. I do think it is important to learn programming, as well as all the other subjects. But I don't see an easy solution to getting qualified teachers in place in our schools. When I was an engineer (I did that for 20 years before becoming a teacher) any class I took that was related to the job, was paid for by my employer. Is the taxpayer willing to foot the bill for having every teacher take classes to learn how to do programming? Not in America, they aren't.

In fact it was considered and even tried as early as 1967. Witness: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logo_(programming_language) Repeated attempts at using computer science to teach math have had mixed results. None of these experiments have really given educators any compelling reason to believe it is any more (or less) effective that traditional methods. Of course, I am shooting mostly from memory here, so a detailed study may prove me wrong.