U.S.- U.S. President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday introduced Miguel Cardona as his nominee for secretary of education, called the Connecticut education commissioner “brilliant, ” and said he will play a key role in his administration’s efforts to reopen schools forced to connect amid the coronavirus pandemic. Cardona, whose parents moved from Puerto Rico to Connecticut, would be another high-profile Latino in the cabinet if the Senate confirms it. Biden said Cardona “understands that the deep roots of inequity that exist as a source of our persistent gaps in opportunity. He understands the transformative power that comes from investing in education.”
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Cardona said that as an education commissioner, a public school father, and a former classroom teacher at a public school, she understands how difficult this year has been for students, educators, and parents.
He has taken some of our most painful and lasting disparities and opened them even more, Cardona said, speaking publicly for the first time as Biden’s nominee.
Miguel Cardona. Twitter
He said that “for many students, his zip code and skin color remain the best indicator of the opportunities he will have in his life.” He added: “While we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, we also know that this crisis is ongoing, that we will have its impacts in the coming years, and that the problems and inequities that have plagued our education system long before, Covid will remain with us even after the virus disappears.” Biden reiterated Wednesday that reopening schools safely would be a national priority for his administration and talked about the challenges students, educators, and administrators have faced amid the coronavirus pandemic.
They worry. They’re under stress. They stretch the local budgets that have left educators out of work, Biden said.
He also criticized the White House’s “contradictory signals” about stimulus aid, a day after Trump unexpectedly announced that he was calling for changes to the $900 billion Covid-19 aid package, leaving doubt to the future of the legislation
