Funding Cuts Are a ‘Gut Punch’ for STEM Education Researchers

The New York Times ^ | May 22, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET | Katrina Miller

[E. Pluribus Unum]

More than half of the National Science Foundation grants terminated since April fund programs that would help students train in science, engineering and math.

Change continues to ripple through the National Science Foundation as it tries to comply with the policies and priorities of the Trump administration. But the branch of the agency that funds STEM education research is taking a disproportionate hit.

STEM education research focuses on improving how students, from preschool to university, are trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. That encompasses everything from adopting better curriculums and teaching methods to changing the way schools and districts are run. Researchers say that the values encapsulated in diversity, equity and inclusion, or D.E.I., have been a focus in the field since long before the terms were strung into an acronym and popularized.

“The work of STEM education has always been about creating a bigger tent, giving access to more students of all backgrounds so that our STEM work force better reflects the diversity and demographics of the American public,” said Mike Steele, a math education researcher at Ball State University and a former program officer in the National Science Foundation’s directorate of STEM education.

More than 1,400 research grants at the foundation have been canceled since April, according to Grant Watch, a crowdsourced online database. As of May 7, awards for STEM education accounted for 54 percent of those terminations, a loss of $773 million in funding, which represents nearly three-fourths of the total dollar amount of terminated foundation grants.

One canceled project aimed to use virtual reality to better engage high school students with autism in engineering. Another created hands-on programs for Indigenous youth to grow food using traditional knowledge and modern technology. A third intended to double the number of rural...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

STEM education research focuses on improving how students, from preschool to university, are trained in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Sounds like a cushy make-work program for DEI "educators."

[rbg81]

Yes, a lot of this is indeed DEI.

[Da Coyote]

The NYT writing about anything STEM related is akin to Kamala writing about Maxwell’s equations.

Silly journalists, do something within your meager capabilities...such as lying, porn, and DEI.

[bankwalker]

Most STEM has turned to crap.

[meyer]

They’re barely cutting anything, and the gimme crowd is whining like someone stole their favorite dog from the yard.

[Bernard]

This economy has been "growing" on national debt for 40 years. The national debt has grown $32 TRILLION dollars during that time, sort of like maxing out all of your credit cards and telling yourself that you got a raise.

If only the people who run these non-profit organizations would spend their own fortunes on all of this spending, it might make some sense in a twisted way. And wait until the kids who are supposed to benefit from this STEM spending figure out that THEY have to deal with the debt left behind. I wonder how often they will stop by the cemetery and leave flowers for the big spender graves.

[ComputerGuy]

My tax bill was a gut punch.

[dfwgator]

This economy has been “growing” on national debt for 40 years.

---

And convincing people to over-consume.

[BudgieRamone]

for administrators. I was teaching a student in Women in Advanced Manufacturing who is benefitting from STEM grants. She wants to be a machinist, and those grants are paying her tuition.

Admittedly, I have mixed feelings about it, yes I want government to slash spending and not use my money for anything but government roles. But on the other hand, the benefits of educated citizens is good for everyone, and my particular student is a good example. She wants to contribute to society.

[Paladin2]

The NSF is no longer associated with the traditional definition of “Science”.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The problem is they sprinkled a few good things in with the chaff for cover.

When I went to college at the local state university branch the tuition was $300 a semester. I paid it on the $1.25 per hour I was making at McDonald's. The amount of inflation in "education" costs is the scandal. The universities could charge anything they wanted and the dumb 18-year olds would borrow it and hand it over to them.

BLM and Antifa are overwhelmingly college grads pissed off that they are up to their eyeballs in student loan debt for worthless degrees that will never enable them to get out from under it or afford families.

[Paladin2]

I want my “No tax on SS”.

I’d pass it on to my grandkids to very partially insulate them from the lame actions of Congress.

[Paladin2]

Criminal they are.

Student loans should only come from the edumacation institutions themselves.

[Varda]

“One canceled project aimed to use virtual reality to better engage high school students with autism in engineering. Another created hands-on programs for Indigenous youth to grow food using traditional knowledge...”

In other words, a load of crap. Good riddance.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

hands-on programs for Indigenous youth to grow food using traditional knowledge

Seems to me that's just about the antithesis of STEM.

[Professional Engineer]

Golly, those professors might have to start lecturing again, instead of making the English as a 5th language grad students do it.

[Venkman]

hands-on programs for Indigenous youth to grow food using traditional knowledge

“Seems to me that's just about the antithesis of STEM.”

You don’t see the value of using stone age methods to move forward into the future? /sarc

[bigbob]

We need good STEM education but not STEM research.

[NorthMountain]

The acronym STEM is contemporaneous with the crapification of education in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

We may all be doing that soon enough, but STEM it’s not.