First lady Jill Biden visiting Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City Thursday
First lady Jill Biden will come to Kansas City on Thursday as she highlights vaccination clinics and community colleges, the White House has announced.
Biden will visit Metropolitan Community College, or MCC. The White House didn’t specify the MCC campus where she will appear, but the Penn Valley location is holding a vaccination clinic on Thursday.
“The First Lady will highlight the partnership between federal retail pharmacy partners and community colleges during her visit to vaccination clinics at Grand Rapids Community College in Grand Rapids, Michigan and at Metropolitan Community College in Kansas City, Missouri,” the White House said.
MCC is offering one free class — up to three credit hours — to students who get vaccinated.
Biden, a community college professor, has spent her first few months as first lady emphasizing the importance of community colleges. She has promoted the idea of free community college, proposed by President Joe Biden in the American Families Plan, a $1.8 trillion social services spending package that also includes money for early childhood education and other programs.
The first lady’s interest in community college has only intensified during the pandemic.
“We have to get this done. And we have to do it now. That’s why we’re going to make sure that everyone has access to free community college and training programs,” Biden told the legislative summit hosted by the Association of Community College Trustees and the American Association of Community Colleges in February.
MCC has nearly 14,000 students across five campuses in the region and operates on an annual budget of $160 million.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
This story was originally published May 24, 2021 at 3:53 PM.
