President Joe Biden was in northern Illinois at McHenry County College on Wednesday. The president talked up his “American Families Plan” which he says would invest in “human infrastructure.”
For the recently proposed bill, that means expanding tax credits for families with kids, two free years of community college and increases to Pell grants for low-income students.
McHenry County College President Clinton Gabbard says his school embodies those goals, especially with its manufacturing and onsite childcare programs.
“He loved hearing about what we're doing in childcare, both serving childcare needs for students, but also all of our employees. Also educating folks who are going to be childcare workers,” said Gabbard.
The community college president said he was honored Biden and the other Illinois leaders in attendance chose McHenry County College as a platform for those plans.
“There was a sense of each one of these people wanting to say, ‘let's turn a corner as a country.’ A hopefulness, obviously caution, metered by some of the realities of the partisanship, but they were saying, ‘you know, let's get some stuff done,’” he said.
Biden also talked about his pending multibillion-dollar infrastructure plan, which is currently making its way through Congress.
Gabbard says Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker was pleased to point to construction on a new Center for Advanced Technology and Innovation at McHenry County College as an example of the state’s recent investments in infrastructure.
The First Lady also recently paid a visit to a northern Illinois community college. Jill Biden, who teaches English at a community college, praised Sauk Valley Community College's "promise" program.
*McHenry County College is an underwriter of WNIJ.
