Sponsors (6)
Authorizes NSF to competitively grant funds to expand biotechnology education for secondary students, funding teacher PD, curricula, labs, partnerships, and credentials.
The bill expands and targets secondary biotechnology education and industry-connected pathways—improving access, teacher training, and equipment support—while requiring new federal spending and local ongoing investments and carrying sustainability risks because the program is temporary and may tilt curricula toward workforce priorities.
Secondary-school students (including low-income and rural students) gain expanded access to biotech courses and stackable credentials, with resources targeted to underserved areas to reduce geographic and socioeconomic disparities in STEM pathways.
Students and postsecondary institutions benefit from public–private and higher-education partnerships that create internships and clearer pathways into biotech industry jobs.
Secondary teachers receive funded professional development in lab instruction, curriculum design, and pedagogy, improving classroom quality for biotech instruction.
Local school districts and state/local governments may face ongoing maintenance and personnel costs for new lab programs that one-time grants do not fully cover, risking program sustainability.
Taxpayers face modest increased federal spending from expanded program administration at the NSF to run the initiative.
The program is temporary (5-year sunset), so coordination and supports may lapse after termination, threatening continuity of partnerships and student pathways established under the program.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To support biotechnology education for secondary school students, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 14, 2026 by Sarah McBride · Last progress April 14, 2026
Creates a new NSF grant program to expand biotechnology education for secondary (high school) students. The NSF Director, working with the Education Secretary and a newly created National Biotechnology Education Consortium, may award competitive grants to schools, nonprofits, higher education institutions, and other eligible entities to fund teacher training, curricula, lab equipment, partnerships, stackable credentials, and related activities. The Director must form a Consortium within 180 days to coordinate stakeholders and best practices; the Consortium sunsets after five years. The law authorizes activities and priorities but does not itself appropriate funds or change tax law.