Advocacy creates opportunities in CHIPS Act
| Number | First Name | Last Name | Email Address |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anne | Evans | anne.evans@mail.com |
| 1 | Bill | Fernandez | bill.fernandez@mail.com |
| 1 | Candice | Gates | candice.gates@mail.com |
| 1 | Dave | Hill | dave.hill@mail.com |
The bipartisan 2022 CHIPS and Science Act has some exciting provisions for K-12 students in rural communities—thanks in part to the work of Battelle. Battelle manages a range of programs advancing STEM education, including the STEMx network. Battelle, on behalf of STEM educators nationwide wide, advocated for key elements of the bill to key leaders in Congress.
Idaho
- Idaho STEM Action Center: STEM education, including the STEMx network. Battelle, on behalf of STEM educators nationwide wide, advocated for key elements of the bill to key leaders in Congress. LINK
- Idaho National Laboratory: STEM education, including the STEMx network. Battelle, on behalf of STEM educators nationwide wide, advocated for key elements of the bill to key leaders in Congress. LINK
The new law includes a rural STEM education pilot program modeled after the Tennessee Rural STEM Collaborative (TRSC), developed by the Battelle-managed Tennessee STEM Innovation Network (TSIN).
The Rural STEM Collaborative Pilot included in the bill authorizes the National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish “regional cohorts in rural areas that will provide peer support, mentoring, and hands-on research experiences for rural STEM educators, principals, and other school leaders of students in prekindergarten through grade 12, in order to build an ecosystem of cooperation among educators, principals, other school leaders, researchers, academia, and local industry.”
Thomas Phillips, Senior Congressional Affairs Specialist on the Government Relations & Public Policy team in Washington D.C., says the initiative has been a long time coming. “We started discussions with the House Science Committee over three years ago, during the last Congress, when they were developing a draft bill to promote rural STEM education,” he explained.
At that time, committee staff reached out to learn more about the STEM education initiatives at the Department of Energy (DOE) national labs that Battelle manages, many of which tend to be in rural communities. Ultimately, however, the committee decided to move the focus to new programs at NSF, rather than DOE, in order to better align with a similar measure being considered in the House.
While initially disappointed, Phillips saw an opportunity to introduce the committee staff to the Tennessee and Ohio STEM initiatives that Battelle manages Through those conversations, committee staff learned about the model of the Tennessee Rural STEM Collaborative. They were impressed. An initial bill with language modeled on TRSC passed quickly, with strong bipartisan support in the House, but was ultimately stalled in the Senate in the last Congress. Fortunately, the bill (and the Battelle-developed pilot program) was re-introduced in this Congress and quickly passed both chambers. After a year in legislative limbo, the bills were finally conferenced together in the CHIPS and Science Act, which was signed into law by President Biden on Aug. 9. Through it all, Battelle has been working both behind the scenes and with many coalitions and partners to influence the direction and language of the new law.
The success of TSIN and OSLN caught the attention of lawmakers early on. The NSF pilot program written into the CHIPS and Science Act is directly modeled after the TRSC. The Battelle Government Relations and Education teams also had the opportunity to provide input into the rest of the bill.
“We leveraged the expertise of not just the OSLN and TSIN but all our STEMx membership and crafted cohesive policy recommendations based on the real-world experiences of our network leaders and educators in their communities,” said Phillips.
Battelle also helped to shape language defining STEM ecosystems as networks, which has a direct impact on what kinds of organizations will be eligible for the newly authorized NSF funds. We hope to see the Rural STEM Collaborative pilot adopted by more state and regional STEM networks as a result of the new legislation. More work remains to be done; while the bill authorizes funding for NSF to establish additional regional rural STEM networks, funds have not yet been appropriated by Congress.
“I plan to stay engaged as NSF moves into the implementation stage. This is a great opportunity for the Education team to scale up and expand our impact with help from NSF,” said Phillips . “Seeing this through to implementation will demonstrate to the House Science Committee their instinct to come to us as experts was right. It will help us work with them to shape the policy of tomorrow.”
STEMx will host conversations with members about the CHIPS and Science Act in the coming months, to strategize how we can effectively use these funds to advance high-quality STEM education nationally.
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