Congress Should Equip Community Colleges for AI

In 2022, as ChatGPT made its public debut, Jazmin Even Dorra walked past the AI center on the downtown campus of Miami Dade College. Staff there welcomed her and introduced her to the college's offerings in artificial intelligence. A few years later, Even Dorra became one of the first students to earn an associate's degree in applied artificial intelligence from Miami Dade, one of the first programs of its kind in the country.

Today, Even Dorra works as a lab technician at the center, helping Miami-Dade students and faculty incorporate advanced robotics into classroom projects, maintaining cutting-edge computing equipment, and organizing educational experiences for middle and high school students. She is also working toward a bachelor's degree in applied artificial intelligence from Miami Dade, one of the few four-year degrees offered by U.S. community colleges.

With billions of public and private dollars flowing into the AI industry and artificial general intelligence on the horizon, the United States is in the midst of a once-in-a-generation social, political, and economic transformation.

Our most ambitious policy proposals to steward AI's benefits and avoid existential risks are still being shaped, but policymakers face a low-hanging fruit that can help millions of Americans prepare for the AI era and realize the promise of widespread economic opportunity: our more than 1,000 community colleges.

Despite enrolling more than 40 percent of all undergraduates and a disproportionate share of low-income students, community colleges still receive less funding per student than their four-year counterparts.

Most community colleges lack the instructor workforce, industry partnerships, physical plant, and community of practice needed to help Americans absorb the shock of AI. Congress must expand federal investment in these institutions so they can respond to rapid technological change. Community colleges are already affordable thanks to typically low tuition, but policymakers need to make sure they have the infrastructure to prepare students for the new economy.

How to Strengthen AI Capacity at Community Colleges

Research from the Future of Work & Innovation Economy initiative at New America has found that community colleges need dedicated support to build capacity to prepare graduates for jobs shaped by emerging and frontier technologies like AI. In 2024, New America launched a program with the National Science Foundation (NSF) to help college leaders do just that with the benefit of investments under the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act.

As highlighted in a testimony before Congress this spring, colleges need dedicated resources to modernize their data infrastructure. They need up-to-date equipment and teaching tools that mirror what is used in advanced tech. They need to modernize systems to recruit, retain, and train instructors who can teach cutting-edge skills. And they need to enhance employer partnerships, which are key to expanding high-quality degree and credential programs, as well as work-based learning such as apprenticeships and internships. There is also room for new kinds of partnerships with tech-based economic development organizations, including publicly funded national laboratories, Manufacturing USA Institutes, and federally funded R&D centers.

This might sound like a tall order, but the National Applied AI Consortium (NAAIC), led by Miami Dade College, shows it is possible. An NSF-funded collaboration among community colleges, it has launched several partnerships with major industry players, including Intel, Microsoft, Google, and OpenAI. These collaborations have trained nearly 2,000 faculty and staff across more than 400 institutions in 48 states and Washington, D.C. The consortium is also expanding its high school programming, having already supported more than 150 high school teachers with professional development in AI education.

NAAIC is increasingly serving as a hub for curriculum development, skills identification, and mentorship programs, making the most of federal dollars by unlocking private-sector investment, notes Antonio Delgado, vice president of technology and innovation at Miami Dade College and the founder of the consortium.

How Congress Can Support AI Education, Literacy, and Utilization at Community Colleges

The NSF's Advanced Technological Education program and the Labor Department's Strengthening Community College Training Grants are two existing vehicles that Congress could bolster and direct to build capacity for advanced industries. Targeted expansion of these programs focused on AI and emerging industries—and on the regions poised to see the most tech-based growth—would go a long way to ensure that these efforts span the country. Coordination with the Departments of Education, Energy, Commerce, and Agriculture, and various defense agencies, can also support community colleges in this area.

The federal government would complement efforts of states, philanthropies, and the private sector to mobilize around workforce training and regional coordination, as under the $1 billion RAISE US initiative launched by former Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, a Democrat who served under President Joe Biden, and former Republican Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb. The Trump administration's own AI Action Plan and Science: A New Golden Age report call for targeted investments in community college capacity for AI and emerging tech sectors, signaling a strong impetus for bipartisan alignment.

Community colleges cannot address all of the economic impacts of AI, but shoring up our community college capabilities is an essential step to help Americans gain the AI literacy and workplace skills they need to navigate what is to come.