On Capitol Hill, Concerns Grow Over NSF Cuts Threatening Community College STEM Job Training

On February 12th, New America and the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) hosted a briefing on Capitol Hill sponsored by the Congressional Community College Caucus, co-chaired by Representative Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and Representative Joe Courtney (D-Conn.).

The briefing, titled “Turbocharging Community College Pathways to the Future of Work and the Innovation Economy,” focused on the critical role of the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the federal agency dedicated to STEM R&D and education, in supporting community college workforce pathways to a strong, skilled technical workforce across STEM industries – especially for industries or jobs shaped by emerging technologies, including biotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), and quantum computing. Panelists included Shalin Jyotishi, Founder and Managing Director of the Future of Work and Innovation Economy Initiative at New America, President Janet Spriggs of Forsyth Technical Community College, and Steve Jurch, Associate Vice President of ACCT’s Center for Policy and Practice.

Research from New America has illuminated community colleges' vital role in meeting employer talent needs for future-forward industries catalyzing the future of work and the role of the NSF in enabling that work. Particularly following the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, the NSF has significantly expanded its support of community colleges in emerging technology areas by creating new programs to support institutional capacity-building, experiential learning, and partnerships in technology-based economic development.

Key NSF programs include but are not limited to the Experiential Learning for Emerging and Novel Technologies (ExLENT), Enabling Partnerships to Increase Innovation Capacity (EPIIC), the Regional Innovation Engines, and the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) programs. These programs contribute to two national objectives: ensuring that American technological leadership can be maintained abroad in the face of competition from China and making certain that more Americans can benefit from that leadership here at home by gaining the education and skills needed to secure good jobs in STEM and emerging industries shaping the present and future of work.

During the briefing, Rep. Bilirakis emphasized community colleges’ importance in workforce development and economic growth in advanced manufacturing and AI. As co-chair of the Congressional Community College Caucus, a community college graduate, and an adjunct professor at St. Petersburg College, Bilirakis is familiar with the vital role of community colleges in transforming local economies. In his remarks, Bilirakis cited community colleges as “where our future high-skill workers will get their training” and named them key vehicles for communities’ workforce development. During his time in the Florida Legislature, Bilirakis was an architect of community college bachelor’s degrees, which have been awarded to over 75,000 Floridians since 2001.

Beyond their role as transfer institutions, community colleges directly work with employers and economic development organizations to identify and meet urgent and future local workforce needs. For Spriggs’ institution, the NSF’s support is “indispensable.” She named the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce, which has called Forsyth Tech home since 2004, as one example of the NSF’s role in fostering “pathways out of poverty.” NSF funding made the center’s existence possible. Beyond funding physical spaces and programs, the NSF supports Forsyth Tech’s efforts to acquire cutting-edge and costly equipment like scanning electron microscopes, bioprinters for organ transplants using synthetic tissue, and a mass spectrometer – all essential for powering North Carolina’s bioeconomy.

Like the center Spriggs cited, early investments are catalysts for future growth. The NSF’s help to get the center in operation made Forsyth Tech’s innovation economy work immediately attractive to a litany of postsecondary partners, hospital systems, local governments, workforce development leaders, and businesses. NSF funding often precedes private support; the NSF’s rigorous oversight and assistance give business leaders confidence and present opportunities for high-impact investing.

Beyond their role as transfer institutions, community colleges directly work with employers and economic development organizations to identify and meet urgent and future local workforce needs. As open-access institutions with a clear local focus, community colleges are primed to serve students from all walks of life who wish to skill up or reskill into emerging sectors. NSF funding provides an indispensable acceleration of these pathways, complementing investments from employers such as Amazon, Intel, and NVIDIA’s investment in community college AI education and from states like Texas’ Lone Star Future of Workforce Fund.

As the NSF faces layoffs, funding freezes, political pressure, and a potential $6 billion funding cut proposed by the Trump administration, Spriggs and the panelists urged legislators to recognize the benefits of NSF funding for community colleges like Forsyth Tech and to listen to community college leaders like her who have voiced concern about the impact of NSF cuts on their students and employer partners. “There’s still a lot of room for us to be able to have a conversation like this. Our purpose [today] is to describe the invaluable impact the NSF funding has had for community colleges…we need to really explain to our legislators what that means in terms of the impact” on the workforce and the economy.

From the technologies underpinning Google to GPS to Microsoft’s recent quantum computing breakthrough, NSF funding is key. Federal agencies like the NSF and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) are fundamental partners in fostering and sustaining economic growth and innovation—not just through research in labs but also in STEM career preparation. Efforts at community colleges to train workers in cutting-edge technologies like Miami Dade College’s AI programs or MiraCosta College’s biomanufacturing programs are vital to continuing this record of success.