117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 210 
AN ACT 
To coordinate Federal research and development efforts fo-
cused on STEM education and workforce development 
in rural areas, including the development and application 
of new technologies to support and improve rural STEM 
education, and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rural STEM Edu-
cation Research Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The supply of STEM workers is not keeping 
pace with the rapidly evolving needs of the public 
and private sector, resulting in a deficit often re-
ferred to as a STEM skills shortage. 
(2) According to the Bureau of Labor Statis-
tics, the United States will need one million addi-
tional STEM professionals than it is on track to 
produce in the coming decade. 
(3) Many STEM occupations offer higher 
wages, more opportunities for advancement, and a 
higher degree of job security than non-STEM jobs. 
(4) The 60,000,000 individuals in the United 
States who live in rural settings are significantly 
under-represented in STEM. 
(5) According to the National Center for Edu-
cation Statistics, nine million students in the United 
States—nearly 20 percent of the total K–12 popu-
lation—attend rural schools, and for reasons rang-
ing from teacher quality to shortages of resources, 
these students often have fewer opportunities for
high-quality STEM learning than their peers in the 
Nation’s urban and suburban schools. 
(6) Rural areas represent one of the most 
promising, 
yet 
underutilized, 
opportunities 
for 
STEM education to impact workforce development 
and regional innovation, including agriculture. 
(7) The study of agriculture, food, and natural 
resources involves biology, engineering, physics, 
chemistry, math, geology, computer science, and 
other scientific fields. 
(8) Employment in computer and information 
technology occupations is projected to grow 11 per-
cent from 2019 to 2029. To help meet this demand, 
it is important rural students have the opportunity 
to acquire computing skills through exposure to com-
puter science learning in grades Pre-K through 12 
and in informal learning settings. 
(9) More than 293,000,000 individuals in the 
United States use high-speed broadband to work, 
learn, access healthcare, and operate their busi-
nesses, while 19,000,000 individuals in the United 
States still lack access to high-speed broadband. 
Rural areas are hardest hit, with over 26 percent of 
individuals in rural areas in the United States lack-
ing access to high-speed broadband compared to 1.7
tories, institutions of higher education, or 
in industry; 
(vi) developing training and best prac-
tices for educators who teach multiple 
grade levels within a STEM discipline; 
(vii) designing and implementing pro-
fessional development courses and experi-
ences, including mentoring, for rural edu-
cators described in clause (i) that combine 
face-to-face and online experiences; and 
(viii) any other activity the Director 
determines will accomplish the goals of this 
subsection. 
(B) RURAL
STEM
COLLABORATIVE.—The 
Director may establish a pilot program of re-
gional cohorts in rural areas that will provide 
peer support, mentoring, and hands-on research 
experiences for rural STEM educators of stu-
dents in grades Pre-K through 12, in order to 
build an ecosystem of cooperation among edu-
cators, researchers, academia, and local indus-
try. 
(b) BROADENING PARTICIPATION OF RURAL STU-
DENTS IN STEM.—