Community Colleges to Suffer if Congress Doesn’t Reverse NSF Budget Cuts

Congress did something invaluable but underappreciated with the passage of the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The “science” part of the legislation empowered the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), America's federal agency dedicated to advancing scientific research and STEM education, to expand support for community colleges workforce preparation for emerging technology sectors.

Community colleges are well-known as affordable, accessible, and employer-aligned engines of economic mobility. Scientific and technological innovation spurred by federally funded R&D, CHIPS-specific investments, the AI revolution, and infrastructure investments such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act have compounded America's need for skilled technical talent and community colleges.

Today, community colleges not only educate America’s care workers, welders, plumbers, and electricians and support degree attainment, but they are also training for jobs in emerging fields comprising the future of work.

Through certificates, degree programs, apprenticeships, and customized training, community colleges meet employers' workforce needs for the emerging technology areas Congress emphasized in CHIPS – including artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, quantum science and technology, biotechnology, green energy jobs, advanced manufacturing, and beyond.

That’s good news because not only are 2-year institutions best suited to grow the STEM skilled technical workforce, but the community college sector serves a significant portion of working-class Americans, rural communities, and people of color who were left out of the innovation economy during the 20th-century rise of Silicon Valley.

Around 41 percent of all undergraduate students attend a community college, and 65 percent come from families earning less than $50,000 a year. New America’s “Varying Degrees,” an annual survey about Americans’ perspectives on education after high school, finds that 85% of polled Americans believe community colleges are worth the cost.

Congress “chips away” at the CHIPS Act and cuts NSF funding

Unfortunately, Congress slashed over $800 million from the NSF budget in March instead of following through on CHIPS budget targets. This was a step in the wrong direction. Per Congress' original plan, NSF should have gotten $6 billion more in FY24 than it received.

These cuts threaten to stifle community colleges that are innovating and providing critical education, reskilling, and upskilling training necessary to meet labor market needs for CHIPS technology areas and the STEM workforce overall.

The U.S. House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science introduced bill text that provides a mere 2% above the FY24 enacted levels and $924 million below the President's Budget Request, including a further $172 million cut to NSF’s STEM education directorate.

Funding at this level would undercut the CHIPS Act significantly. Congress must reverse course and fully fund NSF to the levels identified in the CHIPS & Science Act.

Business leaders agree. In June, 21 CTOs of major businesses urged Congress to fund NSF at the levels identified in the CHIPS & Science Act.

CISCO, IBM, Microsoft, and SAP Software Solutions joined the U.S. Chamber of Congress in a letter asking for Congress to restore NSF funding.

More than forty university leaders belonging to the U.S. Council on Competitiveness urged Congress not to "give up on science" and to fulfill the commitment to fund "science" in the CHIPS & Science Act.

New America’s Future of Work and Innovation Economy initiative studied community colleges' role in emerging technology workforce development, technology-based economic development, and regional innovation ecosystems well before CHIPS was law. The contribution of federal science agencies like NSF in supporting 2-year institutions cannot be understated. Congress must know that undercutting NSF hurts businesses, universities, the economy, and global competitiveness—but also community and technical colleges.

How CHIPS Expanded NSF Support of Community Colleges

In 2022, the CHIPS Act established the first new arm at NSF in over thirty years – the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships Directorate. Under the directorate’s leadership, NSF expanded its support for community colleges, specifically for job training around emerging technologies – a critical need for the bill’s successful implementation.

NSF EPIIC: Building the capacity of community colleges for the innovation economy

Community colleges are chronically underinvested in and need dedicated support to meet the needs of advanced industries. The division’s new Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC) grant funding program is helping to build the capacity of community colleges to meet emerging technology workforce needs.

For example, Harper College, in partnership with Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College and City Colleges of Chicago, is working to improve employer partnership structures to meet workforce needs in emerging technology fields like quantum science and technology by implementing the Business & Industry Leadership (BILT) model.

In an email statement, Avis Proctor, President of Harper College, told me that the EPIIC grant is positioning the community college sector to strengthen its landscape of employer collaborations.

“I encourage Congress to continue recognizing the critical role community colleges play as regional economic engines and restore NSF funding to levels authorized by the forward-thinking CHIPS and Science Act.”

- Avis Proctor, President, Harper College

NSF ExLENT: Expanding hands-on, work-based learning in emerging technology sectors

In emerging occupations where labor market needs are less clear, hands-on experience is critical.

NSF’s new Experiential Learning for Emerging and Novel Technologies (ExLENT) program is expanding work-based learning partnerships between community colleges, employers, economic development organizations, and other entities focused on advanced industries. For example, MiraCosta College won an ExLENT grant to scale internships and apprenticeships in the biomanufacturing and microelectronics sectors.

“Securing the NSF ExLENT grant is a transformative milestone for MiraCosta College, our students, and sectors important to our state,” Sunita Cooke, President of MiraCosta and Board President of the American Association of Community Colleges, shared with me.

“The recent cuts to NSF funding pose a significant threat to programs like ours that are crucial for developing a diverse and skilled workforce. Congress must continue to fund the NSF at the levels authorized in the CHIPS & Science Act.“

- Sunita Cooke, President, MiraCosta College

NSF Regional Innovation Engines: Empowering Community Colleges in Innovation Ecosystems

Both NSF ExLENT and EPIIC have set the stage for more robust community college engagement in the NSF’s landmark CHIPS-enabled program–the Regional Innovation Engines. NSF Engines represents the broadest investment in science- and technology-based economic development in the modern era and is carrying out Congress' vision to build innovation hubs beyond existing coastal enclaves.

The NSF Director Sethuraman Panchathan joined First Lady Jill Biden, a community college professor, to announce the inaugural NSF Engines earlier this year–not at MIT or Stanford, but at Forsyth Tech Community College in North Carolina.

Forsyth Tech President Janet Spriggs emphasized that her institution is "proud to play a pivotal role" in the Piedmont Triad Regenerative Medicine NSF Engine. All the inaugural NSF Engines include community colleges as named partners, which will support workforce needs resulting from applied R&D and technology development.

“Increased NSF funding for community college programs is essential, as it empowers institutions like ours to equip students with the skills necessary to succeed in emerging sectors. This investment in education and training benefits our students while also driving innovation and economic growth."

- Janet Spriggs, President, Forsyth Technical Community College

Speaking at New America, the NSF Director underlined the importance of community colleges in training the skilled technical workforce for Engines, stating, “None of the Regional Innovation Engines will be successful if we don't have the capacity of the skilled technical workforce unleashed at full force and full scale, everywhere.”

NSF ATE: A long-standing investment in STEM education at community colleges

While NSF's new technology directorate should be applauded for its creative programs to support community college innovation and partnerships around frontier technologies, the agency's impact on the 2-year sector runs deep.

For example, since 1992, NSF’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, housed in its STEM education directorate, has invested nearly $1.5 billion in more than five hundred community and technical colleges to prepare the skilled technical workforce across STEM industries.

During the program's 30th anniversary celebration last year, Walter Bumphus, President and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges, remarked that among the trade group's relationships, "we don’t have a partnership any more significant than with ATE and NSF."

“Through NSF’s Advanced Technological Education program, Columbus State has partnered with employers to develop leading-edge programs in information technology, advanced manufacturing, and clean energy,” David Harrison, President of Columbus State Community College, told me. Harrison serves as the community college representative on NSF's STEM education directorate’s advisory committee.

“Increased funding for the National Science Foundation, as called for in the CHIPS Act, would be transformational to support the growth of new industries and empower colleges like ours to support the workforce priorities of their communities."

- David Harrison, President of Columbus State Community College

It's not too late. Appropriators in Congress can still act by increasing NSF funding in Fiscal Year 2025 and commit to achieving CHIPS budget targets in subsequent years. Doing so would safeguard the momentum of the technological innovation unleashed by CHIPS and ensure a vibrant workforce, a robust economy, and, ultimately, a renewal of the American middle class.

As emphasized by Rep. Frank Lucas, chair of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, it is the “science” portion of the CHIPS and Science Act that will be “the engine of America’s economic development for decades to come.”