Trump Budget Torches Community College Workforce Programs

Despite both graduating from Ivy League institutions of higher education, President Trump and Vice President Vance have been harsh critics of traditional higher education and represented themselves as strong advocates for workforce education and alternative pathways into the middle class. Their budget, however, says something else. Overall, it slashes more than $800 million in funding for community colleges, the primary providers of career and workforce education, along with other critical programs to support people looking for a good job. 

Trump wants to make community colleges ineligible for grants under the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED’s) $1.4 billion Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act program, an important source of funding for equipment, faculty training, and services to address the needs of vulnerable populations like low-income students and students with disabilities. Currently, states decide how much of their Perkins grants they allocate to school districts for middle and high school programs and how much they distribute to community colleges. Last year, states spent 38 percent of their grants for postsecondary education, or about $430 million. The Trump budget seeks to remove community colleges from the program without explanation.  

Community colleges value the Perkins dollars they receive for their flexibility, using them to address a variety of CTE program necessities that they document through a biennial needs assessment required by the law. This year, for example, Salt Lake Community College in Utah is using its Perkins grant to purchase an engine that aviation maintenance students need to learn skills they need to pass the Federal Aviation Administration certification exam for airframe and powerplant technicians, as well as other equipment needed to keep its dental hygiene, diesel technician, welding, and forensic science programs current. The college is also tapping its Perkins grant to pay the child care costs of low-income student-parents in its CTE programs.

Trump is also seeking to eliminate all funding for ED’s $715 million Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), which supports education and training programs for people without a high school credential or who are seeking proficiency in English. Last year, 556 community colleges received $229 million to provide these programs. A growing focus of the federal program is delivering integrated education and training that combines basic skills instruction with career preparation. For example, Indian River State College in Florida gives students in its high school equivalency programs the opportunity to co-enroll in two semesters of college-level occupational courses, earning up to 12 credits they can use toward an associate degree after they earn their high school credential.   

The proposed budget eliminates the U.S. Department of Labor’s $65 million Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grant Program, which community colleges leverage to increase their capacity to meet the skill development needs of employers and workers in in-demand industries. Ozarks Technical Community College in Missouri, for example, is using its $5.7 million 2024 grant to address the shortage of health care professionals in its region, aiming to train 3,500 nurses and other allied health professionals. The Strengthening Community Colleges program would be wiped out by a Trump proposal to consolidate most DOL training programs into a state block grant that would cut overall funding for DOL training programs by $1.2 billion overall.

National Science Foundation (NSF) funding for community college technical education also appears to be on the chopping block. For three decades, NSF’s $74 million Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program has supported partnerships between community colleges, industry, and others to improve the education of technicians in science and engineering. For example, Macomb Community College in Michigan is using its ATE grant to create an associate degree program in electric vehicle technology and certificate programs in connected automated vehicles and cybersecurity, while Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College is creating an associate degree program in cloud administration technology with its grant.  The Trump budget would consolidate funding for all of NSF’s STEM education programs into a larger account and cut the agency’s budget by 54 percent, making it unlikely that ATE would survive into next year.

With its attack on community colleges, the 2027 budget request unmasks the fraudulence and cynicism of the Trump Administration’s rhetoric about higher education. In their speeches, President Trump and Vice President Vance may celebrate non-bachelor’s degree alternative pathways to the middle class, but their budget proposal would soak them with gasoline and light them on fire.