Senate confirms Miguel Cardona as education secretary

The Senate confirmed Miguel Cardona to serve as education secretary Monday, vaulting the little-known Connecticut educator into the center of the national debate over how to reopen schools for face-to-face classes.

The Senate vote was a bipartisan 64-33 for Cardona, whose nomination moved through the chamber without any significant controversy — in contrast with the confirmation his immediate predecessor, Betsy DeVos, who needed the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Mike Pence to win confirmation.

“At this moment of crisis, Dr. Cardona is exactly the leader we need at the Department of Education,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D.Wash.,

chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “He has the experience, principles and perspective that we need in this critical role.”

Cardona, 45, was born into poverty to Puerto Rican parents before becoming a public school teacher, principal, administrator and, in 2019, Connecticut’s education commissioner.

As education secretary, he will be tasked with helping to reopen schools, addressing long-standing equity gaps exacerbated by the pandemic and managing the federal government’s $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio.

Cardona, who will be sworn into office Tuesday morning by Vice President Kamala Harris, is expected to immediately jump into the school reopening debate. On Wednesday, he will travel to his hometown of Meriden, Conn., with first lady Jill Biden for an event about reopening schools.

He was chosen in part based on his track record in pushing Connecticut schools to reopen for inperson learning. In his confirmation hearing before the Senate education panel, he said he approached the job with a spirit of cooperation.

“We were open and transparent with what we knew, and we made sure that we partnered with our health experts to put out very clear guidance early on to make sure that the mitigation strategies were very clear,” he said. “I look forward to, if I’m fortunate enough to serve as secretary of education, to bring that same mentality of partnership and clear communication to help recover our public education and reopen our schools.”