Miguel Cardona: Championing Educational Equity and Innovation as Secretary of Education
Miguel Cardona's tenure as the 12th United States Secretary of Education, beginning with his nomination by President Joe Biden and swearing into office on March 2, 2021, has been marked by a commitment to raising the bar for equity and excellence in education for all learners. His leadership has focused on addressing disparities, fostering innovation, and strengthening partnerships to create a more equitable and effective education system for the nation's 65 million students, ranging from prekindergarten to adult learners, and their families.
Overcoming Pandemic Challenges and Reopening Schools
Secretary Cardona assumed office during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when the nation's education system faced unprecedented challenges. At the beginning of his tenure, he led the nation's efforts to safely reopen schools, increasing the percentage of schools open from 45% to nearly 100% within nine months. This achievement was made possible through the strategic use of public-private partnerships, which enabled schools to access resources and expertise needed to implement effective safety measures.
Cardona's experience as the Commissioner of Education in Connecticut, where he led safe school reopening efforts by providing school districts with a balance of guidance, local autonomy, and oversight to ensure equitable educational opportunities while prioritizing public health mitigation measures, proved invaluable in navigating the complexities of the pandemic. His approach focused on partnerships within his Education Department, between state agencies, and with local boards, educator unions, school administrator associations, child advocates, and students and families.
Historic Investments in Education
Under Secretary Cardona's leadership, the Department of Education oversaw the distribution of a historic $170 billion in federal education funding for PreK to 12 schools and colleges. These funds were crucial in supporting schools as they addressed the immediate challenges of the pandemic and began to implement long-term strategies for academic recovery and student well-being.
These resources and support in K-12 schools in the four years under the Biden-Harris administration are more than at any other point in the country's history.
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The "Raise the Bar" Initiative: A Vision for Educational Transformation
Secretary Cardona's vision for a transformed education system is embodied in the "Raise the Bar" initiative, which focuses on four key pillars:
Academic Recovery and Excellence: Addressing learning loss and promoting high-quality instruction to ensure all students have the opportunity to reach their full potential. To date these efforts have seen the greatest one year growth in reading achievement for lower performing students.
Improving Conditions for Educators and Mental Health: Recognizing the importance of well-supported educators and students, this pillar focuses on providing resources for mental health services and supporting the teaching profession. There has been an increase from zero to 48 states programming to pay student teachers through apprenticeships, 16,000 additional school counselors and mental health experts.
Global Competitiveness through Career Pathways and Multilingualism: Preparing students for success in a rapidly changing global economy by expanding access to career pathways and promoting multilingualism.
College Affordability and Accessibility: Ensuring that higher education is within reach for all students by increasing access to financial aid and addressing the rising cost of college. This fall, Federal Student Aid will award Pell Grants to 10% more students than last year.
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We're making sure that we're highlighting as part of the Raise the Bar strategy, options for students when they graduate. I'm trying to evolve high schools so that it's not just the technical high schools that are preparing students for the career that exist today. If I'm in Connecticut and I go to a comprehensive high school and I get the credential to weld, I can walk out of high school, get a $70,000-80,000 job at the Groton submarine base that's hiring 5,000 people. If I go on to a two-year school, get a coding degree for telling the machines what to weld by coding it, I'm making well over $100,000 a year without a four-year degree and without college debt. Now amplify that with the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act and you have so many opportunities for our students. My challenge now is to make sure that we're evolving as quickly as we need to so we give students options when they graduate. I'm not just talking about the technical high schools. All comprehensive high schools should be connected to the workforce and career needs that exist in their community.
Addressing Disparities and Promoting Equity
A central focus of Secretary Cardona's work has been on addressing disparities and ensuring that all students have equal access to educational opportunities. The Department of Education has made intentional efforts to attract young women to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields and to direct resources to state district schools that are focusing on underrepresented groups in STEM.
Opportunity and access come when you have high-quality programming so we are really focused on ensuring that we have pathway support dollars and technical assistance for a lot of these communities that may not have the resources. We've also been very intentional to direct money towards state district schools that are focusing on some of those underrepresented groups in STEM. We also work with boards of education and the leaders of communities that have a lot of disparities to ensure that they have the resources and tools that they need so that those students get the same opportunities as the kids in the suburbs. We're very purposeful in our approach bringing out the fact that we need more girls and people of color in STEM and we're supporting that through grants and technical assistance.
Strengthening Public-Private Partnerships
Secretary Cardona has been a strong advocate for public-private partnerships, recognizing the crucial role that businesses and community organizations can play in supporting student success. He has actively collaborated with businesses, both large and small, to create opportunities for students to gain real-world experience and develop the skills they need to succeed in the workforce.
With partnerships, schools are always the hub, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're the only service provider. I could go back to when I was a school principal and I had kids that had toothaches. We partnered with the community health center and I had dental chairs set up where kids were getting their teeth taken care of so that they could learn better. Now in this role, I came in during Covid-19 pandemic when schools were closed and the needs were great. That mentality that made me say, “We’ve got to blur the lines between agencies. I’ve got to work with Rochelle Walensky, Anthony Fauci, and Xavier Becerra to make sure schools get open, colleges need to work with their local homeless shelter, and both schools and colleges need to work their hospitals to get vaccinations in the arms of kids. At that point, I realized that what was once a luxury or something that was nice to have was now how you have to do business. That's the mindset through which I look at education. We no longer can serve our students and families well if we don't realize the role that we have in a bigger context and the opportunities for students are accelerated when you engage in public private partnerships as part of your core DNA and your belief system, whether it's local districts or at the national level.
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Secretary Cardona leads these efforts to establish these public private partnerships. For him, the model is similar to the one school systems had to establish with the medical community during the Covid-19 pandemic to safely reopen.
Adapting to the Evolving Economy
Recognizing that the economy is constantly evolving, Secretary Cardona has emphasized the importance of adapting education to meet the changing needs of the workforce. The Department of Education has been working to evolve high schools so that they are not just preparing students for the careers that exist today, but also for the jobs of the future.
As I mentioned earlier, we have this strategy called “Raise the Bar” and it's basically what we've been focusing on through six pillars.Two of the pillars are academic achievement, two are conditions for learning (mental health and teacher quality), and the last two includes pathways to careers and college.
Student Loan System Transformation
Secretary Cardona has led unprecedented federal efforts to transform the country's student loan system, resulting in greater accountability in higher education and over $175 billion in debt relief to nearly 5 million Americans.
A Career Dedicated to Education
Secretary Cardona's commitment to education is deeply rooted in his personal experiences. He is the son of parents who moved from Puerto Rico in the 1960s for better opportunities in the mainland United States, and his bicultural upbringing has shaped his passion to serve all students and improve their opportunities for success.
Throughout his career, Secretary Cardona has held a variety of positions in the education system, including:
- Classroom teacher
- School principal
- District leader
- Commissioner of Education in Connecticut
This experience has given him a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing students, educators, and schools across the country.
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