President Obama, Jill Biden To Boost Free Education Plan During Visit To Macomb County Community College
MACOMB (WWJ/AP) - President Barack Obama is going back to college.
With his plan for two years of free community college stalled in Congress, President Barack Obama is trying to put more oomph behind state and local programs that provide what he's been unable to offer nationally.
Obama was teaming up with Jill Biden, a community college professor and the wife of Vice President Joe Biden, to visit Macomb County Community College in Warren, Michigan, on Wednesday. They planned to announce an independent College Promise Advisory Board, led by Biden, that will highlight existing programs providing free community college.
The board will try to recruit more states and communities to do likewise and will also enlist celebrities in a public awareness campaign to press for tuition-free community college.
It's a return visit to the community college for Obama, who went there in 2009 to announce a series of administration efforts to bolster community colleges. He followed that up earlier this year with a $60 billion proposal in his State of the Union address to make two years of community college free.
Conceding a lack of interest in that plan from the Republican-controlled Congress, domestic policy adviser Cecilia Munoz said the advisory board will try to build momentum for the idea "so that Congress will do what the people are asking for." In the past six months, Oregon and Minnesota have started statewide programs, and there are local efforts in Philadelphia; Dayton, Ohio, and Palatine, Illinois, she said.
Obama and Biden are also expected to speak about the need to invest in job skills and to grow the U.S. economy.
The trip comes as U.S. unemployment has fallen to a seven-year low of 5.1 percent. In a report issued just before Labor Day, the Labor Department said employers added a moderate 173,000 jobs in August.
Obama has frequently touted the resurgence of the auto industry in Michigan following federal bailouts of major U.S. auto companies early in Obama's presidency.
While in Warren, the President will also tour Michigan Technical Education Center with Biden and deliver remarks announcing new steps to expand apprenticeships.
Macomb County Executive Mark Hackle, who was sheriff during Obama's '09 visit said — while at that time the future of the U.S. auto industry looked bleak — manufacturing is here to stay.
"I don't think we're going to be questioning that," Hackle told WWJ Newsradio 950's Ron Dewey. "If there is somewhat of a blip down the road, and people are thinking once again, 'Well, sheesh, we need to diversify...We need to think of something else that we can be' ...We are manufacturing, we are automotive, we're defense. We have so much to offer in that area."
Down the road in Wayne County, Executive Warren Evans said he, too, plans to attend the president's speech.
Evans was asked if he'll be requesting additional federal funds to complete the county's floundering jail project or for a new county criminal justice center.
"I am absolutely elated that (President Obama) understands urban issues and urban problems...and we'll do our begging at a different time," Evans said. "But we'll certainly be there today to thank him for coming and trying to push Detroit and Wayne County forward."
Meantime, this Michigan trip is expected to offer people an opportunity to take a closer look at Jill Biden as her husband is considering a run for president.
Jill Biden is said to share her husband's concerns about the family's emotional readiness for another campaign, although her spokesman has said she continues to support her husband in his career. In an email to supporters, Obama called Biden, who teaches English, his "favorite community college instructor."
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