The 15 public high school academies in Paterson are getting a big assist in computer science, courtesy of the world’s largest Internet company.

Amazon announced in February a $50 million program in which it would provide introductory and advanced placement (AP) computer courses - via a corporate partner, Edhesive - to more than 1,000 high schools in the Amazon Future Engineer program.

Amazon spokeswoman Allison Flicker confirmed on Friday evening, one day after Paterson officials disclosed the decision, that it had selected the public school district in New Jersey’s third-largest city.

“We are looking to support schools and districts and programs that reach students from under-served and under-represented communities. We are really excited to be working with Paterson schools,” Flicker told NJ Advance Media.

It is a welcome development for the Paterson district as it grapples with the possible loss of up to 232 jobs and steep programming cuts in September.

Paterson Schools Superintendent Eileen Shafer, who on March 27 requested an additional $28 million in state aid to prevent the reductions, said the Amazon grant offers “a tremendous infusion of resources that will benefit high school students throughout the district.”

“Having Edhesive’s cutting-edge teaching resources available to our schools will help our students be better prepared to succeed in the computer sciences in college," Shafer said via an emailed statement from the district on Thursday.

The 15 high school academies are located in nine buildings, including four at the John F. Kennedy Educational Complex and three at Eastside High School, Paterson spokesperson Paul Brubaker said.

In explaining the origins of the program, Amazon noted two months ago an attention-grabbing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projection - that, by 2020, there will be 1.4 million computer science jobs available, but with only 400,000 qualified graduates in the application pool.

Computer science is the fastest-growing profession in the STEM field - the acronym stands for science, technology, engineering and math - but, according to Amazon, only 8 percent of STEM graduates obtain a computer science degree, and of that only a small number hail from under-privileged backgrounds.

High school students from under-privileged backgrounds are 8 to 10 times more likely to seek college degrees in computer science if they have taken AP computer science classes, Amazon said.

Paterson’s assistant superintendent, Eric Crespo, said students taking part in the program “will be getting the best computer science education possible at the high school level, and the best preparation for competitive assessments such as AP exams.”

“Most importantly, our students will be developing the skills and the knowledge that will be critical to so many entities in our society through the rest of this century,” Crespo said in a statement emailed by the district.

Amazon recently passed on opening a new headquarters in Newark, despite being offered $7 billion in tax credits from state and city officials.

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to reflect corrected information from Paterson schools and Amazon.

Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@RobJenningsNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters