First Lady of the United States Jill Biden made a brief stop in Augusta on July 18 and took a tour of Augusta Technical College as part of her “Investing in America” tour.
Augusta along with four other cities in Georgia and Pennsylvania have been named as “workforce hubs” and the First Lady is visiting all five cities to promote her husband’s Bidenomics plan, which has a heavy emphasis on education.
Jill Biden is a former college professor of English and has made education her priority as First Lady.
Air Force Executive One Foxtrot landed at Augusta Regional Airport around 12:30 p.m. where Biden, along with U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk, was greeted by Augusta Mayor Garnett Johnson and Augusta’s First Lady, Toni Seals-Johnson.
At Augusta Tech, Biden and her entourage were taken on a tour of the college by President Jermaine Whirl.
One class had Biden trying her hand at soldering electronics and in another class, Biden watched as students practiced troubleshooting a pneumatic three-way central line, a piece of robotic assembly line equipment.
Ted Herlo, head of the Mechatronics Technology Department, told Biden, as the students worked on the equipment, that graduates of a two-year degree from Augusta Tech could expect to make $90,000 a year and have little to no student debt.
“Wow! That’s way more money than I made as a teacher,” Biden said.
After the tour, Biden headlined a campaign style rally in the college’s auditorium where 320 people were in attendance, according to the Fire Marshall. The First Lady spoke from a podium surrounded by students holding up signs proclaiming, “invest in Georgia” and “invest in Augusta.”
Biden claimed her husband’s administration had created 13 million jobs and that education leading to good jobs remains a priority for the administration.
“Joe’s father used to say: A job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about dignity. Joe watched his dad struggle to find good work. He saw how a job could change a family’s path,” Biden said. “He understands the middle class because he’s from the middle class.”
Meanwhile, Johnson announced a partnership between his office, Augusta Technical College, Aiken Technical College and the Richmond County Board of Education to create an Augusta Workforce Initiative.
“Today is a great day in Augusta. We are building momentum in the fields of construction and supply manufacturing and it’s great that the White House Office of Science and Technology is investing in Augusta,” Johnson said.
Due to the rigid schedule, Biden did not take questions from the local press corps.
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
