Joe Biden is leaning toward nominating Miguel Cardona, education commissioner in Connecticut, to serve as secretary of the Department of Education and lead a reopening of the country's schools, according to people familiar with the matter.
Why it matters: Cardona, who has focused on reopening schools in his home state, emerged as the president-elect leaned away from another potential candidate, Leslie Fenwick, dean emeritus at Howard University, and two teacher's union candidates. A final decision has not been made.
The big picture: Biden has pledged to reopen the majority of U.S. schools within his first 100 days as president if Congress helps with financial support. It's urgent as parents and educators fear losing a generation of scholars due to coronavirus shutdowns that sent children to remote learning.
- There have been broad inequities in this digital environment, spurring a movement to get kids back in classrooms and to secure the health of teachers who must stand before them.
- “In-person education is too important for our children to disrupt their education further, unless and until local conditions specifically dictate the need to do so,” Cardona and the acting public health commissioner wrote to school superintendents last month, according to the Hartford Courant.
- A Biden transition spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Biden moved toward Cardona after initially considering two high-profile representatives of the two largest teachers' unions: Lily Eskelsen Garcia, former president of the National Education Association, and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
- In picking neither, Biden appears to have sidestepped any sibling rivalry between the NEA and AFT.
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