President Obama is slated to formally unveil the grants on Wednesday at Macomb Community College in Warren, Mich. It follows his 2014 State of the Union pledge previous year to expand apprenticeships.

The president tapped Biden to lead a College Promise Advisory Board, which is tasked with pushing states and cities to provide high school students with a free community college education.

“It’s not enough to just be strong and willing to work“, Obama said.

“Community colleges are at the heart of the American dream”, Obama told an enthusiastic crowd of students and faculty.

For decades, the conventional wisdom has been: If you don’t go to college, you’ll be doomed to a life of low-wage drudgery. “And I’ll talk about the progress around the country in making community college free, and what more we need to do to make it available for more students”. He says education is the “secret sauce” that explains the nation’s success.

In Tennessee, 15,000 students enrolled during the fall semester for free classes at community colleges, the president said.

“Arms-on apprenticeships, the place staff earn and study on the similar time, are a confirmed path to good, safe middle-class jobs”, the White Home stated in a press release.

It’s a return trip for Obama, who visited the school in 2009 to announce a series of administration efforts to bolster community colleges.

Obama promoted a new website, HeadsUpAmerica.us, for those looking for more information about his plan. Earlier this year, President Obama unveiled America’s College Promise proposal.

“…I believe that no kid should be priced out of a college education”, Obama said.

The president’s comments come as the White House and congressional Republicans are locked in a collision course that once again has made a federal government shutdown a real possibility.

In brief off-the-cuff remarks to 18,000 wildly cheering Democrats, Obama said he liked the way the convention was going and singled out Bill and Hillary Clinton for their big-time speeches. The plan is to invest millions in the middle class with two years of free tuition at community colleges and new job training grants.