Just a few days after delivering his 100-day address at Macomb Community College in Warren, Michigan, President Donald Trump released a budget proposal that would slash funding for the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) by more than half. For 75 years, the agency has played an indispensable role in funding STEM workforce training at America’s community colleges — just like Macomb.
Even though Trump campaigned on supporting Americans economically and says he wants to boost our tech leadership, the administration is proposing to weaken one of the few avenues left to pursue the American dream through jobs of the future.
Community colleges provide credentials that Americans can actually afford, often with a high return on investment — including meaningful salary improvements. NSF funding supports job training at community colleges in one of the global economy’s key sectors: STEM, specifically the skilled technical workforce, which requires more education than a high school diploma but not necessarily a four-year degree.
More than half of America’s 37 million STEM workers are skilled technical workers who power our manufacturing, healthcare and aerospace industries and also are a bedrock of America’s middle class.
On June 3, the American Association of Community Colleges and New America are holding a Capitol Hill briefing focused on the ways NSF funding opens community college pathways to the future of work and the American Dream.
In addition, community colleges are poised to lead on one of the pressing scientific issues of our time: artificial intelligence. NSF funding has enabled community colleges to create valuable AI education programs. Enrollment in Miami Dade College’s AI program, for example, is already booming. Research we have done at New America including interviews with Miami Dade students has shown that these AI offerings are not just valuable to our youth but also to millions of working adults, including those with bachelor’s degrees, who come back to community college to gain practical, industry-aligned skills.
Under another NSF grant, Miami Dade has teamed with Houston Community College in Texas and the Maricopa Community College District in Arizona to launch a national consortium to scale AI education at community colleges nationwide, working alongside major employers like Microsoft and Google. Why put these essential training opportunities — and the students and employers who depend on them — at risk?
Biotechnology is another emerging technology priority for Trump and Congress that would be kneecapped by the proposed NSF cuts. Just last month, the Congressional National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology, chaired by Sen. Todd Young (R-IN), published a landmark report urging that the U.S. take action over the next three years to reaffirm its global leadership, and that we strengthen investments in biotech workforce education for the health of our citizens, our economy, and our military.
Pioneering investments
The NSF has been leading innovation in biotechnology through community colleges for decades. Since its inception in 1992, its Advanced Technological Education program has invested more than $1.5 billion across more than half of the nation’s over 1,200 community colleges, supporting training in automotive tech, cybersecurity innovation, textiles innovation, regenerative medicine, semiconductors, and beyond. When I joined Janet Spriggs, president of Forsyth Tech Community College, on Capitol Hill this year to discuss NSF funds for community college pathways to emerging industries, she made it clear that her institution’s biotechnology impact would “not be possible without NSF funding.”
There is no substitute for these resources – not from philanthropy, industry or states. In fact, NSF funding is often seen as a seal of approval needed to convince other funders to make an investment. In the past year, the NSF has made pioneering co-investments in STEM workforce education with major companies including Intel, Micron and GlobalFoundries.
Last fall, my own organization partnered with the NSF to launch a $3 million program to support community college training in emerging technologies.
Skeptics may argue that community colleges can seek funding from other federal agencies. But New America tracks and studies many of those potential sources, and their structure, budget, and funding rules do not allow for the same support of cutting-edge technology education at community colleges. After all, the NSF is the agency charged by law with “advancing all fields of science and engineering,” including undergraduate and graduate education, and it has an unmatched track record in this pursuit.
Since Trump took office, Silicon Valley Venture capitalists, leading economists, politicians, and executives such as Microsoft President Brad Smith have warned that NSF cuts would hurt America’s AI leadership, national security, startups, and economic growth. Adding to that list is our skilled technical workforce and the community colleges that prepare them for good jobs of today and tomorrow.
Preserving the NSF and its budget should be a no-brainer, nonpartisan priority. The country’s future looks bleaker without it.
