Española’s youth science and tech programs had two big-league visitors Monday—National Science Director France Córdova and Senator Martin Heinrich.
Española has one of the highest poverty rates in the state, but it’s also got some strong science, technology, engineering and math programs—also called STEM. There’s a robotics club that Senator Martin Heinrich says could help fill a looming workforce shortage at Los Alamos National Laboratories.
“Half the workforce in Los Alamos is going to turn over in the next few years,” Senator Heinrich said. “Actually, at a time in our country when it’s been hard to place people in jobs in the workforce, STEM jobs have sat open for months at a time because we don’t have enough people coming through the pipeline.”
Heinrich and Córdova are pushing for more National Science Foundation and STEM funding that could boost tech programs for low-income students in New Mexico. That could be difficult, though, since the senate that has been reluctant to raise science funding.
