Op-ed: From Silicon Valley to South Carolina — Building America’s future through community innovation

Across the South, limited access to technology, advanced coursework and workforce pipelines continues to restrict opportunity. Students in rural and low-income areas are less likely to receive early exposure to science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics (STEAM). In South Carolina, only 42% of third through eighth-grade students are performing in math at grade level.

The result is a widening skills gap that not only hurts the future of young people in these communities, but also threatens long-term economic competitiveness across South Carolina and the nation. For America to lead in the 21st century, we must ensure that technology investment and workforce development reach every region of the country — not only major coastal hubs.

One of us represents Silicon Valley in Congress and helped lead the CHIPS and Science Act to ensure American innovation is geographically diverse. The other founded the ICAN Innovation Center in Columbia, South Carolina — an independently built community hub that expands access to science and technology education for students, families and local entrepreneurs. Together, we share a common goal: to bring technology and innovation to communities that have been left behind by the offshoring of jobs.

How do we begin to close the gap?

In today’s economy, progress depends on more than vision — it requires places where people can gain the skills to participate. The ICAN Innovation Center — built entirely through local and private support — makes that possible. Inside its 20,000-square-foot facility, students learn coding and engineering, adults retrain for new careers and companies use advanced virtual and augmented reality technology to develop new products. The state-of-the-art center includes 3D computer-aided design and robotics labs, a medical triage suite with neonatal and virtual reality surgery simulators and a structural design lab that uses modular EverBlock systems.

The center demonstrates how community-driven innovation can close skills gaps and power regional growth. As national labor market data show, more than 70% of new jobs now require some level of digital competency — from data analytics to cybersecurity and digital marketing. Without direct access to this kind of training, many communities risk being locked out of opportunity altogether.

Expanding this model also requires partnerships between leading technology companies and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to create new training and job pathways. Congressmembers Jim Clyburn and Ro Khanna have been working together for years to bring good-paying tech jobs and scholarships to students at HBCUs in South Carolina, including Claflin University, Benedict College, South Carolina State and Allen University. The TechWise program at Benedict College, for example, is an 18-month AI and technology credentialing initiative with a $5,000 stipend that prepares students for jobs starting at $65,000.

American innovation should be geographically diverse, with talent and opportunity cultivated in communities that have historically been left out of the technology economy. By combining public, private and community partnerships, centers like ICAN and HBCU programs reduce reliance on distant institutions and keep opportunity rooted in local neighborhoods.

This approach reinforces a key lesson: Federal policy can create pathways, but local leadership ensures those pathways lead somewhere. When programs, employers, schools and training centers work in alignment, regions can develop talent pipelines, attract new industries and expand their middle class.

The success of the ICAN framework that has emerged in Columbia relies on three elements working together: community-driven leadership to identify needs, federal alignment to support investment and private-sector engagement to provide equipment and technical expertise. When those elements move in the same direction, regions build durable access to opportunity that does not depend on proximity to a major city or tech corridor.

America cannot maintain long-term competitiveness if large parts of the country lack the capacity to participate in the industries driving growth. Expanding access to innovation is not only a question of fairness — it is an economic and strategic imperative.

Congressman Ro Khanna represents California’s 17th Congressional District and serves on the House Armed Services and Oversight Committees. Bishop Eric W. Davis is the founder of the ICAN Innovation Center in Columbia, South Carolina and the senior pastor of the Word of God Church and Ministries International.