First lady Jill Biden touts vocational training, job creation during Maine visit
Photo / Jim Neuger
First lady Jill Biden tours the precision machining lab at Southern Maine Community College in South Portland. She is flanked by U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine 1st District; U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona; and SMCC student Samantha Bock.
Car parts and electronic tools were in the spotlight when first lady Jill Biden paid a visit to Southern Maine Community College in South Portland on Wednesday.
Biden toured SMCC’s automotive technology and precision machining workshops as part of a 40-state tour to promote her husband’s employment-boosting and vocational training policies.
With a doctorate in education and more than 30 years of classroom teaching experience, Biden has made education a priority of her role in the national spotlight.
“These aren’t red ideas or blue ideas; they’re American ideas,” Biden, who didn’t speak publicly in Maine, said at her next stop later in the day in Vermont, according to a White House transcript.
At SMCC's auto technology center, Biden asked students what kinds of jobs they were seeking and talked to them briefly about electric vehicles. Then, at the school's machining hub, she asked student Samantha Bock about how she got into the field, and said she'd like to see more women in the machining and automotive trades.
In South Portland on Wednesday, Jill Biden was accompanied by Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and was joined by Maine officials including Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-1st District, and Portland Mayor Kate Snyder.
The first lady’s agenda was all business and left no time for more traditional Maine-ish pursuits. Two hours after landing in Portland, she was back in the air.
Gov. Janet Mills was unable to attend as she recovers from a COVID infection.
“While I am unable to join our visiting dignitaries in person, I am excited to welcome the first lady and Secretary Cardona to Maine,” Mills said in a statement. “My administration’s free community college initiative and other crucial investments from the Biden-Harris administration are providing important new opportunities for Maine people to get a high-quality education at little or no cost that allows them to take good-paying jobs in rewarding careers – a win for our students, for our employers, and for our economy.”
Mills’ community college initiative, passed by state lawmakers in 2022, provides Maine high school graduates from the classes of 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 with a scholarship to cover the cost of Maine Community College System tuition and mandatory fees, once other available state and federal aid is applied.
In the first year of the initiative, enrollment at Maine’s community college system increased by a record 12%, according to the governor's office. Mills has proposed continuing the program for high school students set to graduate in 2024 and 2025.
In Washington, the White House released a fact sheet showing that companies have committed more than $950 million in private-sector investments across Maine since President Biden took office in 2021. That has helped spur the creation of 32,400 jobs since January 2021 and 26,000 new business filings from 2021 through 2022.
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced $80 million in funding for workforce training nationwide in sectors including manufacturing, information technology, energy and transportation, with grants ranging from $500,000 to $5 million.
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