‘The secretary of education for this moment’
Biden introduces Connecticut’s Cardona on the national stage
WILMINGTON, Del. — Connecticut Commissioner of Education Miguel Cardona was introduced on a national stage Wednesday by President-elect Joe Biden as “the secretary of education for this moment.”
Biden, who selected Cardona as his nominee for U.S. secretary of education, said the post will be a critical part of his cabinet and needed to be filled by someone who taught in a classroom.
“Like the other cabinet nominees and appointments, he is brilliant, qualified, and tested,” Biden said. “Someone who not only understands what it’s been like for educators, administrators, families, caregivers, and students this past year, but we also need someone who knows what it takes to get us through this crisis.”
Cardona, whose short tenure as the state’s commissioner of education has been consumed by
trying to guide public education during the pandemic, said he was honored for the opportunity to serve.
Despite the pandemic, Cardona said if confirmed he would seize the opportunity to re-imagine education — and build it back better.
“We must evolve it to meet the needs of our students,” said Cardona, who grew up in a Meriden housing project, attended public schools, and said he knows what it is like entering a classroom not knowing how to speak English.
“And I, being bilingual and bi-cultural, am as American as apple pie and rice and beans,” Cardona said.
Cardona will be the first Latino to hold the post of U.S. education secretary.
Biden, whose wife Jill is a community college professor, said reopening schools safely will be a national priority of a Biden-Harris administration.
The president-elect took the opportunity during the announcement to lay out an ambitious education plan that includes more federal funding for education jobs, COVID-19 testing supplies, transportation so students can maintain social distancing on buses, and additional cleaning services,
protective equipment, and ventilation systems.
To do that, Biden said he needs an education secretary who can not only partner with state and local education leaders but who understands the need to lessen
the pandemic’s impact on inequities in the nation’s education system.
He used remote learning as an example.
“How can it be in America that a parent must drive to the parking lot of a coffee shop or library for WiFi they can’t afford at home so their children can sit in the car to participate in class or do their homework?” Biden asked.
Biden said when the pandemic struck, Cardona was ready.
He credited Cardona for helping to secure 140,000 federal, state and privately funded laptops as well as more than 40,000 internet connections for students who lacked them.
“Because of him, Connecticut became the first state in the nation to ensure that every single public school
student was equipped to engage in remote learning, regardless of family income,” Biden said.
Biden’s plans — which would also take Congressional approval — include tripling funding for Title 1 that goes to schools with the highest number of low-income families; making access to pre-K universal; increasing teacher pay; doubling the number of school psychologists, counselors, nurses, and social workers in schools; and fully funding the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
At the college level, Biden wants to make public college tuition free for families earning less than $125,000 a year; cut student loan debt for many; and invest more in historically Black colleges and universities. He also plans to return to Obama
Biden administration Title I rules to combat campus sexual assault — something he said Trump administration and the current secretary of education have only
undermined.
Cardona said he understands the impact of the pandemic, not only as state education commissioner, but as a public school parent. His two children are teenagers, attending public schools in Meriden.
“Though we are beginning to see some light at the end of the tunnel, we also know that this crisis is ongoing, that we will carry its impacts for years to come,” Cardona said.
His plan is to forge opportunity out of crisis and change the narrative for students allowed to leave school with no idea how to meaningfully engage in a workforce hungry for skilled workers.
“We need schools to be places of innovation,” Cardona said, adding it should not take a pandemic for us to realize how important teachers are in this country.
Cardona said there is a saying in Spanish: En La Unión Está La Fuerza. It means: “We gain strength from joining together.”
“In that spirit, I look forward to sitting at the table with educators, parents, caregivers, students, advocates, and state, local, and tribal leaders,” Cardona said. “I look forward to getting to work on behalf of all America’s children.”