Afterschool STEM programs threatened by cuts and budget proposal

Children building and launching rockets. Youth learning about our planet’s environment and designing projects to clean the air and water in their communities. Teens gaining hands-on experience with coding to solve real challenges in the world. Young people inspired by engaging with NASA science and wanting to contribute to our space workforce. 

Over the past decade, we have become used to seeing young people engaging with and gaining science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) knowledge and skills in their afterschool programs. In fact, we now expect afterschool programs to offer STEM programs, with more than 7 in 10 parents saying they chose their child’s afterschool program based on the availability of STEM and computer science opportunities. The evidence continues to mount that these programs are working to increase interest in STEM among young people.

But we are now at serious risk of losing all the progress we have made in the past decade, just as we are realizing the potential of afterschool programs to reach all youth with hands-on STEM learning experiences that could transform their lives and career trajectories. Funding and support for afterschool STEM programs come from a wide variety of sources across the federal government. The cuts enacted to AmeriCorps and the proposed elimination of the 21st CCLC afterschool funding will remove the foundation for many afterschool programs. Now, the ongoing cuts and proposed elimination of the STEM education directorate at the National Science Foundation (NSF) and NASA, along with cuts to education programs at other science agencies, are removing the walls that enable high-quality STEM programs in all out-of-school time spaces.  

Last week, hundreds of NSF grants that had undergone rigorous reviews prior to being awarded were canceled, most of them from the STEM Education Directorate. This week’s proposed skinny budget from the White House shows a $5B cut to NSF, a lot of it focused on the agency’s STEM education activities, calling them “woke” and too focused on DEI initiatives.   

NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement is also zeroed out for similar reasons, offering a rationale that “... NASA will inspire the next generation of explorers through exciting, ambitious space missions, not through subsidizing woke STEM programming and research that prioritizes some groups of students over others and has had minimal impact on the aerospace workforce.”

The cuts to programs and funding at the other science agencies that support afterschool STEM education, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Department of Defense, will also hurt afterschool STEM programs. The reduction of curricular resources, partnerships, and grants to community-based organizations they offer will curtail our effort to offer relevant and exciting programs that help us to continually increase the availability of high-quality afterschool STEM programs.

In particular, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program at NSF has been critical in advancing our understanding of STEM learning in out-of-school time or informal spaces such as afterschool programs. The AISL grants that NSF has funded over the years have led to a broad range of supports including research providing insights into effective program design as well as how to document and measure program impact; innovations to test new professional development models that reach afterschool STEM educators in rural areas; exploring community-centered interdisciplinary approaches to program implementation; and so much more! These investments have not only improved programming but also seeded partnerships between communities and STEM-rich institutions such as science centers and universities. Youth and afterschool educators all across the country have benefited from the resulting programs, curricula, and research. 

This comes at a time when there is a growing public interest in the intersection between science and societal issues. A new survey from the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC) shows that the public values the role of science in their lives, and nearly nine out of ten people surveyed stated that federal government investment in STEM education is important for the nation’s economic prosperity.

NSF, NASA, NOAA, and other science agencies have always been an integral part of the STEM learning ecosystem, exciting and engaging young people in science and STEM fields. This is not a moment to be pulling back from investing in our young people and our communities. Afterschool STEM programs have made enormous strides in reaching youth all across the country, and we need to be increasing, not decreasing, investment in STEM education. 

Funding for afterschool STEM programs comes from a variety of federal agencies - the afterschool field needs to join forces with our STEM allies to advocate for continued federal investment in afterschool STEM programs. And to our colleagues in the larger STEM education community, afterschool programs are an integral part of the STEM learning ecosystem with enormous public support. Let’s work together to ensure that we can leverage our strengths and resources to support the larger vision so that all young people can continue to access high-quality STEM learning experiences both in and out of school.

Questions? Reach out to us at stemhub@afterschoolalliance.org 

Helpful resources

Help us help you: If you have been impacted by cuts to your grants as a result of recent actions, please tell us about it. Having real examples of impact on people and communities will allow us at the Afterschool Alliance and Afterschool STEM Hub to advocate more effectively.

Organize a site visit: It remains true that nothing makes a champion out of a policymaker like seeing a program in action firsthand. Check out our Site Visit Toolkit to learn how to host a successful site visit.

Advocacy basics: If you would like to learn how to be an effective afterschool STEM advocate, check out the Advocacy Toolkit on our Afterschool STEM Hub website. 

Stay informed and find allies: Check out the website for the STEM Education Coalition to stay informed about what is going on with funding for STEM education more broadly.   

Afterschool Alliance policy updates: Finally, make sure you check out the Afterschool Alliance’s policy updates page to make sure you get the latest updates and calls for action.