Education head right choice for nation
Connecticut’s loss of its education leader is the nation’s true gain. State Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona on Tuesday became President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for U.S. Secretary of Education. He is an excellent candidate for many reasons. Anyone who cares about education will appreciate having a former teacher in that critical position, someone who understands on a classroom level the needs and challenges of public schools. Unfortunately, for the past four years President Trump’s appointee Betsy DeVos, who never was a teacher, was not a champion of public education.
Cardona, if approved by the U.S. Senate, will face the dual tasks of undoing the DeVos damage and guiding the nation’s schools through the rest of the pandemic crisis. He is a proponent of keeping classrooms open as that’s where students can best learn.
Not long after Cardona went from Meriden’s assistant superintendent of schools to the state’s education commissioner in August, 2019, the pandemic forced schools to shift to remote learning last March. Cardona issued complex guidelines for reopening classrooms in the fall, but left the final decision to local school districts. As a result, some cities such as
New Haven and Danbury have not reopened and opted for distance learning; most districts use hybrid models.
Teacher unions in the state, concerned about safety, have urged complete closure, but despite this disagreement praise Cardona’s nomination.
“If we provide safe in-person learning options for students, whenever possible, we can ensure we are doing everything in our control to level the educational playing field and reduce gaps in opportunities for our students,” Cardona wrote in an op-ed for Hearst Connecticut Media last week. “If we can do it safely, this is what we owe to them.”
The abrupt closing of schools last winter exposed the educational disparities among students. Many in distressed districts did not have computers or broadband internet at home to engage in remote learning. Cardona, with Gov. Ned Lamont and philanthropists, acquired and distributed the necessary equipment to all students, the first state in the country do so.
Repairing the gap in learning must be a priority, along with overall closing the achievement differences among racial and economic groups.
Cardona’s qualifications begin with his first year of teaching in an inner-city Meriden fourth-grade classroom in 1998. Five years later he became an elementary school principal, the youngest in the state, and in 2012 was named Connecticut’s National Distinguished Principal. Later Dr. was added to his name with his education doctoral degree from the Neag School of Education at the University of Connecticut.
His personal story also makes him an excellent role model for the nation’s children. The son of parents from Puerto Rico, he grew up in a housing project and entered kindergarten with Spanish as his primary language. He graduated from a technical high school with an auto technician specialty.
Miguel Cardona is a testament to the belief in each individual’s potential, a philosophy that informs his education outlook for the state and soon, the country.
Miguel Cardona is a testament to the belief in each individual’s potential, a philosophy that informs his education outlook.