The Senate voted on Monday to confirm Miguel Cardona as secretary of education, paving the way to lead President Joe Biden’s efforts to reopen schools in the country amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Cardona, 45, a former public school teacher who became Connecticut’s head of education, passed 64 votes out of 33.
He takes charge of the Department of Education amid growing tension between Americans who believe students can safely return to the classroom now and others who say the risks are still too great.
While his position has limited authority to force schools to reopen, Cardona is expected to play a central role in meeting Biden’s goal of having most primary schools open five days a week for the first 100 days. He will be tasked with guiding schools through the reopening process and sharing best practices on how to teach during a pandemic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a roadmap last month to take students back to classrooms safely. According to the agency, masks, social distance and other strategies should be used, but vaccinating teachers was not a prerequisite for reopening.
Cardona, who has gained attention for his efforts to reopen schools in Connecticut, has vowed to make it a top priority to reopen schools. At his Senate confirmation hearing last month, he said that there are “great examples across our country of schools that have managed to reopen safely”.
The debate has become a political storm for Biden, who is caught between conflicting interests while he intends to get students into the classroom without provoking the powerful teacher unions that helped put him in the White House. He says his goal of returning students to classrooms is possible if Congress passes his aid plan, which includes $ 130 billion for schools across the country.
Republicans blamed Biden for not reopening schools more quickly, while teachers’ unions opposed the government’s decision to continue the standardized tests required by the federal government during the pandemic.
The complicated terrain is nothing new for Cardona, however, who faced similar tension while sailing the pandemic in Connecticut and who won initial praise even from Biden’s critics.
Republicans in Congress applauded Cardona’s efforts to reopen schools in Connecticut, and some see him as a potential ally in supporting charter schools. Teachers, in turn, see him as a partner who brings years of experience in the field of education and knows the demands of teaching.
The nomination continues a meteoric rise to Cardona, who was appointed to lead the Connecticut education department in 2019 after spending 20 years working in Meriden, Connecticut, public schools – the same district he attended as a child.
He started his career as a fourth-grade teacher before becoming the youngest director in the state at age 28. In 2012, he was named Connecticut’s director of the year and in 2015 he became an assistant superintendent for the district. When he was appointed state commissioner of education, he became the first Latino to hold the position.
Cardona grew up in a public housing project in Meriden, created by parents who came to Connecticut from Puerto Rico as children. Throughout his career, he has focused on closing the education gap and supporting bilingual education. It is a personal problem for Cardona, who says he spoke only Spanish when he entered kindergarten and had difficulty learning English.
Cardona was the first of his family to graduate from college, and his three degrees include a doctorate in education from the University of Connecticut. He and his wife, Marissa, have two children in high school.
His deep roots in public school fit the criteria that Biden was looking for in an education secretary. During his campaign, Biden promised to choose a secretary with experience in public education. The goal was to contrast with then secretary Betsy DeVos, a Michigan billionaire who spent decades advocating school choice policies.
In an increasingly fragmented world of education, Cardona promised to be a unifier. At his confirmation hearing, he promised to get involved with “the vast and diverse community of people who are interested in education”. He added that “we gain strength by uniting”.
While he works to help schools reopen, he will also be tasked with helping them deal with the damage the pandemic has done to students’ learning. He echoed Biden’s call for more funding for education, saying that schools will need to expand academic summer programs and hire more counselors to help students with mental health problems.
He must also face an initial test, as he ponders how much flexibility to give states when administering standardized tests. Last week, the Department of Education ordered states to continue with annual tests, but said the assessments could be offered online or postponed until the fall. The agency also advocated the possibility of granting states “additional assessment flexibility” in certain cases.
Some states are already pushing for that extra flexibility, including Michigan, which is calling for the replacement of state tests with local “benchmark” assessments that were administered this year. It will be up to Cardona to decide how much leniency to offer.
Republicans also set the stage for a fight for transgender athletes. At last month’s hearing, Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., Raised objections to policies that allow transgender girls to participate in women’s athletics. It is the subject of a legal battle in Connecticut, where some cisgender athletes are challenging a state policy that allows transgender students to participate as their identified gender.
Pressed by Paul to take a position on the subject, Cardona said he would support the right of “all students, including those who are transsexual”.