First lady Jill Biden visited students at Day One Early Learning Community in Poughkeepsie Friday.

The first lady toured the preschool along with education secretary Miguel Cardona after the school received funding from the American Rescue Plan.

The plan helps its teacher apprentice program give locals a way to earn money, while gaining hands-on training for a career and serving children at a critical point in their development.


What You Need To Know

  • First lady Jill Biden met students and staff at Day One Early Learning Community in Poughkeepsie, along with education secretary Miguel Cardona

  • The teacher apprentice program gives locals a way to earn money while gaining hands-on training for an education career

  • The center’s co-founder, Geraldine Laybourne, said providing wages and a manageable training schedule for apprentices has been key to the program’s success

Biden said the center is creating a place, “where families have access to high-quality care without breaking the bank [and] where childcare workers are paid a living wage.”

Administrators say the program offers affordable childcare in addition to the teacher training.

“I can count on my hand the number of teachers I’ve had that look like me, even in college,” said Chanel Whitaker, Day One’s assistant director.

Whitaker is a Poughkeepsie native who completed the 11-week program to build her own career. Now, she said she’s paying it forward.

“Parents, a lot of them, they know me. They know my family. They know someone that I know and it gives them a sense of peace because they’re not just leaving their children with strangers or with someone that’s not from the community,” Whitaker said.

The center’s co-founder, Geraldine Laybourne, said providing wages and a manageable training schedule for apprentices has been key to the program’s success and the first lady’s visit helps advance that message.

“Children are the smartest investment we can make in our nation’s future. When they grow up, they will be the ones to cure cancer, to solve the climate crisis,” said Biden.

”This is the first lady of our land who knows how important it is for our early kids to get a good start between birth and three [years old]. That’s when 80% of their brain gets formed, we need the nation to know that,” said Laybourne.

Administrators estimate that over the next five years, they expect to train 200 early childhood teachers and offer childcare to 300 kids in this community.