Senator Chris Coons visited the University of Delaware’s ISE lab Thursday morning to unveil new legislation aimed at enhancing STEM education’s focus on manufacturing.
Coons plans to introduce the Manufacturing Universities Act of 2014 that would launch a competitive grant program incentivizing universities to increase manufacturing related education.
Twenty five universities would be selected to receive a four year, $20 million grant to strengthen and broaden work with manufacturing and encourage partnerships and research with local manufacturers.
Coons says the bill joins others in the Manufacturing Jobs for America campaign which already seek to strengthen manufacturing-related education in high schools, partnerships with community colleges, and partnership with national labs.
“What was missing was universities," said Coons. "Because the University of Delaware has such a strong engineering program and such a long and close relationship with key manufacturers in our community like duPont, it struck me as a common sense next step for a bill to a part of the Manufacturing Jobs for America initiative.”
Coons adds that American manufacturing is the most productive in the world but has failed to be a strong job creator over the last decade because manufacturing is increasingly research and capital intensive.
“If we continue to be the country that doesn’t just invent things, but also makes things, then we can regain some of our leading role in job creation in manufacturing," said Coons. "I think this bill, if enacted in a way that makes it possible for the University of Delaware to be a winner in the competition, could lead to real partnerships on the ground here in Delaware that would strengthen manufacturing.”
Coons is relatively confident in the bill's success and has gained the support of area universities like University of Delaware, Drexel, Temple, and the University of Pennsylvania as well as companies like DuPont.
American manufacturing brings in about $1.8 trillion dollars, representing 10 percent of the U.S. economy.
