Eight new AI hubs at community colleges across the country, scholarships that actually cover tuition and stipends, and K-12 guidance to teach kids to learn to use AI safely and ethically- all pointed at America’s cybersecurity workforce gap. That’s the promise behind the NSF AI Education Act. Freshly reintroduced in the House this week, it could change how the U.S. builds cyber talent.

What Just Happened in AI Education-and Why Cybersecurity Wins

House lawmakers reintroduced the NSF AI Education Act (H.R. 5351) on September 15, 2025. The bill empowers the National Science Foundation to fund AI scholarships and professional development, with a focus on community colleges, technical schools, and underserved regions. A companion Senate effort-S.4394 from 2024 laid out much of the architecture: teacher training, K-12 guidance, and even “grand challenges” to train a million workers by 2028. None of this is law yet, but momentum is real and bipartisan.

Why cybersecurity cares: the talent gap is big and getting bigger. U.S. employers posted ~514,000 cybersecurity job listings over the latest 12-month window tracked by CyberSeek (up 12% year over year), and about 10% of those listings now explicitly cite AI skills. Globally, ISC2 estimates a 4.76-4.8 million person shortfall in cyber pros. This bill aims straight at that skills problem.

How the Bill Tackles the Cybersecurity Skills Gap

1) Scholarships that pay for real life

The Senate text authorizes tuition, fees, and stipends for graduate students learning to teach AI and AI skills- exactly the kind of capacity-building that grows cyber instructors and lab leaders. These awards can run up to three years and pay the school directly. ([Congress.gov][4])

2) Fellowships that upskill working pros

NSF would fund professional development fellowships for students, teachers, faculty, and industry professionals to gain hands-on skills in AI development, integration, prompt engineering, and quantum hybrid computing– all directly relevant to modern cybersecurity operations and IR automation.

3) Regional AI Centers at community and technical colleges

The House push highlights eight regional Centers of AI Excellence– designed as on-ramps where learners can get practical, job-ready training. This is important for cybersecurity because these campuses feed local employers (including Federal contractors) and can tailor labs toward SOC, OT/ICS, and zero-trust concepts.

4) K-12 guardrails and resources

NSF, with Education and NIST, would publish K-12 AI guidance so that schools can teach AI safely and ethically. Early exposure matters: today’s middle-schooler could be tomorrow’s Tier-1 analyst or secure coder.

5) Grants for AI tools and teaching resources

NSF could make competitive awards to schools and nonprofits for AI learning tools across diverse populations- explicitly prioritizing institutions like HBCUs, Tribal Colleges and Universities, community colleges, and vocational schools.

6) A national “grand challenge”

The bill contemplates competitions to figure out how to train 1,000,000+ workers in AI by 2028– including educators and technical/vocational talent. Framed right, those challenges can emphasize cybersecurity use cases like adversarial ML, AI-enabled defense, and automated detection.

Where It Stands

H.R. 5351 was introduced in the House on Sept 15, 2025 and referred to the Science, Space, and Technology Committee. It’s a re-upped effort from last Congress, now with fresh support and attention on the cyber workforce angle.

Focus on access: AI hubs at community colleges along with scholarships and fellowships, and special outreach to rural and Tribal institutions support diverse members of the population.  This is an access-first design that aligns with how real people enter the cybersecurity field.

Why This Matters for Agency Leaders and Prime/Sub Contractors

The cybersecurity stakes are rising while the talent pool lags. With job postings climbing,  AI skills are clearly in high demand and part of the hiring profile. For mission owners, that means two problems to solve at once: defend today and grow tomorrow’s cyber defenders.

Practical implications:

Faster upskilling: Fellowships can fund mid-career reskilling for SOC analysts, red teamers, or facilities engineers stepping into OT/ICS cybersecurity roles-critical for TFM environments.

Local pipelines: Regional centers give agencies and integrators nearby partners for labs, apprenticeships, and candidate pipelines-especially in regions that don’t have a big four-year presence.

Earlier preparedness: K-12 guidance reduces risk and builds AI literacy before college, widening the long-term supply of cybersecurity talent.

Turning Policy Into Cybersecurity Outcomes

At Bona Fide, we’ve built our TFM model around operational resilience- physical plus digital. As an AbilityOne partner that employs wounded warriors, our mission is talent-forward and mission-driven. The NSF AI Education Act complements what we already do:

On-ramps for veterans and wounded warriors: Many of our team members bring discipline, attention to detail, and systems thinking that translate directly into cybersecurity roles. Expanded scholarships and fellowships lower the barrier to industry credentials and AI-enabled tradecraft.

TFM + Cyber, together: Facilities now run on connected systems- BAS, access control, sensors, etc. Our cybersecurity protocols blend AI and other cutting-edge applications to help us harden OT networks, detect anomalies, and maintain uptime on the systems our customers rely on every day.

What Leaders Can Do Now

Map your cyber roles to AI skills. Where will prompt engineering, model evaluation, or data hygiene improve detection or incident response?

Pilot AI-assisted workflows. Start small in the SOC: case triage, alert summarization, or malware report digestion-with human oversight.

Recruit nontraditional talent. Community colleges, vets, and career-changers are prime- especially as AI tools compress ramp-up time.

AI Education Is a Cybersecurity Force Multiplier

The NSF AI Education Act aligns incentives where the need is greatest- rapid AI fluency that can be put to work in cybersecurity. If you protect critical facilities or run complex operations, that translates to resilience you can measure: fewer incidents, faster MTTR, steadier uptime.

Need Cybersecurity Help that Meets You Where You Operate?

The NSF AI Education Act is not yet law.  And even if or when it becomes reality, the talent pool is still a few years away.  Bona Fide Conglomerate INC has the expertise now to deliver powerful cybersecurity as part of our total facility systems and enterprise defenses.

Let’s talk about your roadmap, pilot an AI-assisted use case, and ensure you’re secured.

Connect with Bona Fide if you need cybersecurity services by clicking HERE.