Biden to pick Connecticut education commissioner for top schools post
Miguel Cardona will be tested on his ability to unify opposing sides in the debate over reopening schools.
President-elect Joe Biden is poised to nominate Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona for Education secretary, adding another Latino to his roster of Cabinet appointees and choosing a leader who has pressed schools to remain open for in-person classes during the pandemic, according to people familiar with the decision.
Cardona’s selection fulfills Biden’s campaign promise to name an educator with public school experience as his nominee for the post. He has spent his entire career in Connecticut, working as an elementary school teacher, principal, district administrator and assistant superintendent, as well as adjunct professor before being named Connecticut’s state chief last year by Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont.
About 70 percent of the state’s schools reopened for in-person classes this fall. But when some Connecticut schools decided to shut down in-person learning in November, Cardona and the state’s acting Department of Health commissioner wrote in an email to districts that they did not think “arbitrary, date-based closures of school are warranted at this time.”
The state health and education chiefs said the prevention strategies schools are using are working, and the state wasn’t seeing “sustained person to person transmission” of the virus in schools, or outbreaks at schools, despite a surge in the state. That put Cardona at odds with the state teachers union, although decisions about remote or in-person classes have been left to local districts.
The union has demanded statewide rules on sharing data about school coronavirus cases, testing and availability of personal protective equipment.
Still, the teachers union and other education unions in Connecticut endorsed Cardona’s selection as head of the Education Department.
“While this challenge has been a rocky road — and many issues remain CONTINUE READING: Biden to pick Connecticut education commissioner for top schools post - POLITICO