The US desperately needs skilled workers. But the community colleges that train them are woefully underfunded

As America seeks to train workers for the hundreds of thousands of new infrastructure jobs that are being created, it will have to lean heavily on community colleges.

But these workhorses of workforce development are facing some infrastructure issues of their own.

Pandemic-related declines in enrollment, particularly in hands-on skilled trades courses, have only made things worse for these long-overburdened and underfunded schools. And while Covid relief money has served as a godsend for financially strapped community colleges, administrators say, those one-time funds are depleting.