President-Elect Joe Biden selected Dr. Miguel Cardona, Commissioner of Education in Connecticut, to be his administration’s Secretary of Education.
The Washington Post wrote about him:
President-elect Joe Biden is set to nominate the commissioner of public schools in Connecticut as his education secretary, settling on a low-profile candidate who has pushed to reopen schools and is not aligned with either side in education policy battles of recent years, two people familiar with the matter said Monday.
Miguel Cardona was named Connecticut’s top schools official last year and if confirmed will have achieved a meteoric rise, moving from an assistant superintendent in Meriden, Conn., a district with 9,000 students, to secretary of education in less than two years.
He was born in Meriden to Puerto Rican parents who lived in public housing. He began his career as a fourth-grade teacher and rocketed up the ranks, becoming the state’s youngest principal at age 28. He was named the state’s principal of the year in 2012...
A finalist for the job was Leslie Fenwick, former dean of the Howard University School of Education and a fierce critic of education policies such as test-based accountability for schools and teachers who have been popular with centrists in both political parties.
Cardona represented a safer selection. He does not appear to have been a combatant in those education wars, though he did challenge teachers unions as he worked to reopen schools this fall.
Democrats who support accountability-type education changes, concerned that Fenwick would get the job, lobbied for Cardona, and although he is not a leader from their faction, his selection marks a win for them. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus also endorsed him in recent days.
So this much is clear. Biden rejected the progressive candidate, Dr. Leslie T. Fenwick. However, Dr. Cardona is not a Broadie, not a DFER favorite, not a member of Jeb Bush’s “Chiefs for Change.” All of this is good news. We know that these fake “reformers” lobbied hard for one of their own. They lost. That’s good news too.
Dr. Cardona has not taken a position on the major issues that define the major education policy battles of the past two decades. He has been critical of excessive testing, but does not oppose the use of standardized testing on principle. He has been critical of test-based evaluation of teachers (a major element of Race to the Top), because he knows that it doesn’t work. He is neither for nor against charter schools, even though Connecticut experienced some of the worst charter scandals in the nation (think the Jumoke charter chain), is the home base of the Sackler-funded ConnCAN (which morphed into 50CAN, to spread the privatization movement nationally), and is the home base of Achievement First, one of the premier no-excuses charter chain, known in the past for harsh discipline (three in the AF chain are currently on probation, despite their high test scores). The fact that three of the politically powerful AF no-excuses charters are on probation is a hopeful sign that he intends to hold charters to the same standards as public schools.
Having read his Twitter feed (@teachcardona), I get the impression that he is a very decent and concerned administrator who cheers on students and teachers. He has not weighed in on political issues that roil the education policy world.
I am still hoping for a Secretary who recognizes that the past twenty years have been a nightmare for American public schools, their students, and their teachers. I am still hoping for someone who will publicly admit that federal education policy has been a disaster since No Child Left Behind and its kissing-cousin Race to the Top, modified slightly by the “Every Student Succeeds Act.” Maybe Dr. Cardona will be that person. We will see.
I believe that the federal government has exceeded its competence for twenty years and has dramatically overreached by trying to tell schools how to reform themselves when there is hardly a soul in Washington, D.C., who knows how to reform schools. Our nearly 100,000 public schools are still choking on the toxic fumes of No Child Left Behind, a law that was built on the hoax of the Texas “miracle.” We now know that there was no Texas miracle, but federal and state policymakers still proceed mindlessly on the same simple-minded track that was set into law in 2001.
Perhaps Dr. Cardona will introduce a note of humility into federal policy. If so, he will have to push hard to lift the heavy hand of the federal government. Twenty years of Bush-Obama-Trump policies have squeezed the joy out of education. Many schools have concentrated on testing and test-prepping while eliminating recess and extinguishing the arts. As an experienced educator, Dr. Cardona knows this. He will be in a position to set a new course.
If he does, he will push back against the mandated annual testing regime that is not known in any nation with high-performing schools.
If he intends to set a new course, he will grant waivers to every state to suspend the federal tests in 2021.
If he intends to set a new course, he will ask Congress to defund the $440 million federal Charter Schools Program, which is not needed and has proved effective only in spreading corporate charter chains where they are not wanted. Two NPE studies (here and here), based on federal data, showed that nearly 40% of the charters funded by the federal CSP either never opened or closed soon after opening. More than $1 billion in federal funds was wasted on failed charters. Let the billionaires pay for them, not taxpayers, whose first obligation is to provide adequate funding for public schools.
Further, if he wants genuine reform, he will begin the process of writing a new federal law to replace the Every Student Succeeds Act and dramatically reduce the burdens imposed by clueless politicians on our nation’s schools.
Dr. Cardona is known for his efforts to reopen the schools during the pandemic. He knows that this can’t happen without the resources to reopen safely. The pandemic is surging again. It is not over. He knows this, and he will have to move with caution not to put the lives of staff or students at risk.
I will not judge him until I see how he handles not only the present dire moment, but the legacy of twenty years of failed federal policy. I am hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Hope springs eternal. We can’t live without it.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I can only hope that you are correct. Here in CT we are not so optimistic.
Skepticism about Cordona – Five years ago he co-authored, “Meeting Common Core Standards Through Teamwork and Teacher Development”. Instead, he could have written, “Harm Caused by Common Core- Winners (billionaires) and Losers (Main Street, it’s democracy, kids and economic survival).
Biden won’t stray far from the tech billionaires. The two choices Americans had and will have for President, authoritarian grifters who implement conservative social policy or, billionaire-serving candidates who work for liberal social policy against Leonard Leo’s judges.
It’s the same choice Ohioans have in senator candidates, that New Jersey has (Cory Booker), that R.I. has (Gina Raimondo) and, Colorado has (its Democratic Governor.).
Thank you for directing us to his article. Here’s an interesting excerpt:
In team meetings, teachers are encouraged to set goals to further the overall needs of the school, share instructional strategies and materials, and thus take shared ownership of goals and ways to meet them. The idea is not only to go beyond tests to build teacher capacities, but also to encourage systemic and sustained problem-solving, avoiding fragmented efforts that add up to very little. This approach has been described by education researcher Michael Fullan as using “social capital to build the profession.” To make it work, teacher leaders must be trained to support other teachers to set goals, define standards for evaluation of performance, and analyze the necessary data. Evaluation happens, but in a context of collegial support, collective accountability, and support for the development of each teacher’s professional capacities.
https://scholars.org/contribution/meeting-common-core-standards-through-teamwork-and-teacher-development
Thanks for sharing
There was a time when history teachers concerned themselves with history, when writing teachers concerned themselves with writing, when literature teacher concerned themselves with literature. Now they concern themselves with “support[ing] other teachers to set goals, define standards [sic] for evaluation of performance, and analyze the necessary [sic] data.”
Such utter bs.
If I were a high-school principal, I would freaking ban EdSpeak.
That’s not just EdSpeak word soup. It’s clear, full throated support for using student assessment data to evaluate teachers, and for standardization in the first place. I hear quiet tones of product marketing (“scaling up what works”) underlying his score of making teachers “accountable” for wealth inequality. I fear he quietly believes in Gates’ stacked ranking, data driven drivel.
Bob– I could be wrong, but I assumed the linked piece referred to “teams” of same-discipline teachers. Their midschools run 700-800 students & high schools 900-1100, so their depts would be fairly large; they may also be working together w/ dept counterparts at the other schools. The link also suggests teachers take the lead on that program, & notes teacher-surveys since they started are happier w/ admin support than before. Just the fact that they poll that question sounds good to me.
Let’s start with a team of Bill and Melinda Gates, Walton heirs and John Arnold and give them the charge to hold themselves accountable for the oligarchy they created to replace democracy.
If there isn’t a law against what they are doing, force them to write one, send them to be tried under the new law and if convicted, implement the harshest sentence possible.
“… ‘capacity building’ won the popularity contest especially in the aid financed development world.”
i.e. Gates-speak
I just read this article. I wonder if you would agree with the concern voiced here. While DeVos was terrible, it is not enough to say getting rid of Devos is enough.
Margaret,
Why is CT not so optimistic?
He’s a yes-man to billionaires, and that bit about covid: “He knows this, and he will have to move with caution not to put the lives of staff or students at risk”? He has repeatedly ignored this and risked those lives accordingly.
How do you stay neutral in the middle of a war? I suppose we would have to ask all the good Germans that had no idea what was going on in the prison camps.
Right?
Do the Cordona children go to public or private schools?
Dr. Cardona’s children go to public school. He did too.
WAPO article very limited.
Waiting for the warm, fuzzy anecdotes from friends and parents to appear in a profile by the NY Times–about this guy (whose credentials and experience, by the way, pale in comparison to more qualified candidates — both Hispanic and Black.
Here you go!
Biden to Pick Latino Chief of Connecticut Schools as Education Secretary
Personnel is policy. If he stacks the place with Bush-Obama-Trump ed reformers we’re going to get the same policy we’ve had for 20 years. Testing and charters and vouchers- it’s all they have to offer.
But I’m hopeful too and I’ll give him a chance. For one thing he attended public schools himself which seems to be as rare as hen’s teeth in elite policy circles, so that’s a good start right there 🙂
And his children attend public schools. He is not a DFER guy.
He has an actual idea (bilingual education) instead of the ed reform recitation of “charters, vouchers and testing” so I give him credit for that.
Imagine that. Something both practical and positive for public school students! It’s a holiday miracle 🙂
At first so did raimondo’s children. She put them in public schools when she first came to RI. She pretended to be the teachers’ friend. Now they are in private schools.
I don’t think you can compare hedge funder Raimondo to Miguel Cardona. He went to public schools. So do his children.
Letter from Connecticut Teachers: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QszJcvpnXDjcOyWlDvDWh0mGZe8LgcZp1Vm8Hcg7dsc/edit
“Commissioner Cardona advanced the now-defunct “Partnership for Connecticut,” which sought to transfer $100 million in public dollars to a public-private entity directed by the Dalio Philanthropies, in order to work on vaguely-defined educational improvements. The effort sought to build upon the organization’s history of support for charter schools and other public education privatization schemes. This effort, supported by Dr. Cardona, represents the opposite of our understanding of the new administration’s stated commitment to public schools as public entities.”
The busiest time of year is when they timed this announcement.
Is this different from the union? I thought the CT teachers union wrote a letter in support?
But this is all very important stuff. I do think it is important to get the entire story for some of these examples (mostly because I see how in NYC de Blasio and Carranza sometimes get portrayed as tools of reformers by using misleading examples when that characterization isn’t accurate) but I am very glad that Connecticut teachers are providing a close look. Thank you.
Do we know that Miguel Cardona “advanced the now-defunct ‘Partnership for Connecticut’” as stated in the CT teachers’ letter? The term “advanced” suggested he spearheaded it, but I doubt that after reading this 12-19-19 article https://www.courant.com/politics/government-watch/hc-pol-lender-foi-bill-for-state-dalio-education-partnership-20200306-2g645ft6crfonf3zrxop6ntm5e-story.html It describes “Partnership for Connecticut” as “a $300 million public-private partnership, established last year [NOTE: Cardoza only became CT Ed Commissioner in Feb 2019] with hedge fund billionaire/philanthropist Ray Dalio, to bolster Connecticut’s low-performing schools.” The article further notes that the Partnership was exempted from the state’s freedom of information and ethics laws “by special language in the 2019 legislation that created it. That legislation, by the way, was hatched by legislative leaders and the governor’s office without a public hearing and inserted into a massive state budget bill.” Cardoza was not a “legislative leader.”
“Cardoza only became CT Ed Commissioner in Feb 2019] ”
According to Wikipedia,
In August 2019, Governor Ned Lamont appointed Cardona as Commissioner of Education;
Interestingly, wikipedia also says this
Cardona was brought to the attention of Biden through Linda Darling-Hammond, the leader of the transition’s efforts, which she also did for Barack Obama in 2008. Darling-Hammond and Cardona have worked together on multiple projects.
Do you have any additional details on this letter? Date issued? Was it from all Connecticut teachers or just teachers from a certain region? Etc? Thanks.
Awfully rapid rise–5-6 teaching and since then an administrator at the local and state level. He may value education, but he didn’t stay in the classroom long enough to become a seasoned teacher. I think the corporate model of advancement has seriously warped public education. It has formed a rift between administrators with minimal teaching experience and people who have devoted their lives to teaching or at least taught long enough to treat it as more than a stepping stone to administration/management.
I couldn’t agree more! I’ve worked in an urban district where teachers are fast-tracked to principal positions. Obviously, it doesn’t make sense and is a recipe for disaster. They are not master teachers and are often too young/immature to run an organization as complicated as an urban public school.
Exactly, S.
Oh, yes. Cardona offers up piercing generalities (The virus exacerbates inequities.)
And he’s not Betsy DeVos!
It’s not good enough that he’s not Betsy DeVos.
What do you mean?
Only 0.9999999% of the world’s people are not Betsy DeVos.
That’s not that much.
99..9999999%
Sorry
I do wonder if Cardona taught under the idiocies of NCLB and its progeny. If not, he has certainly been an administrator through it and taught with many who have. We have to think he has an awareness that past Secretaries of Education have not. Fingers crossed and prayers for sensible policy.
One thing that seems positive is that he doesn’t scapegoat teachers. It was interesting reading the letter he wrote a few days ago:
“I truly understand the added level of anxiety and stress this pandemic has layered on an already demanding and sometimes undervalued profession. Visiting schools over the last several months has served as a reminder that we became teachers and leaders because we wanted to provide equitable access to the best possible outcomes for our students — not because we thought it would be easy. As we work to address this educational crisis in the most important year, in the most important profession, there are also no easy answers.
As a father of two children attending in-person school in the same district in which close family members work daily, I want to make clear that I would not ask you, your colleagues, and your family members to place yourselves in a situation in which I myself would not want my loved ones working and learning. To be sure, there is some risk to any action we take, however, your health and safety are just as valuable and as high a priority.
Since March, we have been convening with education union leaders and representatives of our superintendents and local Boards of Education, along with the Governor’s office and state health officials, to make sure we are providing guidance based on research, science and public health data. Professional advice from national, state and local health officials has been the basis of our guidance to school districts to make decisions about the best teaching and learning models for their respective communities. We have even created substitute flexibilities so that, when quarantining, teachers can save their sick time while teaching from home and know that a vetted adult is supervising their classroom.”
^^The one thing that I wish more politicians would embrace is that “there are no easy answers”. I started to realize how dishonest and corrupt ed reformers were when they pushed the false narrative that there WERE “easy answers”. Those “easy answers” just happened to benefit them financially and professionally and in order to supposedly prove that their “easy answers” were correct, those ed reformers dishonestly pushed flawed studies that any legitimate science reporter would have discredited in a nanosecond — however the ed reporters with their fear and ignorance of numbers and their laziness in believieng they didn’t have to understand a study if an ed reformer “explained” it to them and they wrote an article hyping a study that was “fair and balanced” because it included a disclaimer that “teachers unions who hate charters disagree”.
I want leaders who understand the complexities and are willing to listen to people who explain the complexities instead of to ed reformers who hype what benefits them.
I think that’s a great point, NYCPSP. The very acknowledgement that solutions aren’t simple is a step forward and a sign of a reasonable leader.
“to make sure we are providing guidance based on research, science and public health data. ” That is bs coming from Cardona. The CT DOE has been revising metrics and corresponding guidance in a way that is slanted toward keeping schools open. He and the governor ignore newer published studies that say children can get and transmit covid at the same rate as adults and that schools are places with a serious risk of transmission.
“I truly understand the added level of anxiety and stress this pandemic has layered on an already demanding and sometimes undervalued profession. Visiting schools over the last several months has served as a reminder that we became teachers and leaders because we wanted to provide equitable access to the best possible outcomes for our students — not because we thought it would be easy.” Why this does not reassure me: When Broad trained Deborah Gist came to RI as Commissioner of Education in 2009, she made a point of visiting schools and assuring teachers that as a former teacher she appreciated how hard we worked, etc. That didn’t prevent her from implementing a Chiefs for Change reign of terror. Thankfully, Mr. Cardona doesn’t appear to have her credentials, but I am still very distrustful.
Public schools need a fierce advocate to combat the ever expanding privatization. We need someone that will look at evidence and make decisions that always put what is best for students as primary consideration. Time will tell if Dr. Cordona is the right person or just another wishy washy politician that will be a political puppet for the charter and testing lobbies.
This is such a let down. Educators backed this campaign and organized to bring home the win, Yet we have a person who still buys into testing and forcing schools open during a pandemic. Another sla in the face for educators.
I have been reading what he’s written, & I don’t see “a person who still buys into testing.” He sounds more like someone who had to work with the established system, but was not happy with the emphasis on high-stakes testing, and at least when running his own district found ways to expand teacher support/ evaluation. Granted this is lukewarm praise, but it suggests an open mind. There’s also nothing in his barely-2-yr tenure as CT’s Comm of Ed that demonstrates the sort of devotion to high-stakes accountability systems we saw during Bush/Obama admins.
As to “keeping schools open,” the comparison should be w/ other state or city Ed Commissioners [not w/Fenwick who was not in a K12 leadership position]. I would want more details here (tho I’m not happy with what I’ve heard so far).
My biggest concern about this guy is that he’s only 45 & in the grilling public spotlight for just a few years – could well be someone who can be manipulated in Ed Dept personnel choice by heavy-hitter neolib ed-reformers who will be champing at the gate & perhaps pulling wool over Biden’s eyes…
Lukewarm praise in the post-DeBos era scores high on the standardized test of politics and governing!
Like you, I’m cautiously optimistic about him. I think our next step should be to lobby for candidates to fill the positions of Deputy Secretary, Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education, and Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development (your old job).
I was assistant Secretary for research, but you are right that the job of assistant Secretary for planning, evaluation and policy is the most powerful. DeVos gave it to a Walton employee, Jim Blew
Oh. Looks like your exact position no longer exists according to the last GPO Plum Book. I think the NPE should start to lobby for Fenwick to be Deputy Secretary since she didn’t get the Secretary position (and Juan Vasquez-Heilig to be Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education or Assistant Secretary for Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development). Has the NPE considered presenting a list of names Biden should consider for lower-level positions at the DOE. I know the Progressive Change Institute released a list of people Biden should consider for lower-level positions across all departments including Education (https://transitionnames.progressivechangeinstitute.com/), but many of the names for Education seem to have a background in Higher Education.
I think he’s part of the It family. Jim Blew It.
& it looks like he really blew it!
Exactly. Words are cheap. Actions are what count. The people Cardona chooses in asst. & deputyl positions and in the permanant positions are critical. Broad, DFER, & TFA, The Mind Trust, etc continue to feed the education administrative pipeline with their anti-democratic (little “d”), racist policies cloaked in the language of civil rights. It’s those ideologues who will continue anti-public ed policies who need to be carefully examined and rejected.
After watching Arne Duncan & DeVos ruin 40 years of special education monitoring & compliance, Democrats earned our skepticism.
There is no honeymoon for Biden or Jeanne Allen et al.
The decision has been made. Period. It is going to be important going forward to reach out to Cordona, so it is important now to express support. He hopefully will seek information from the nation’s foremost education historian. After all, DFER is going to be reaching out to him too, trying to persuade him to view public schools as enemies. Gates and Whitney might already have his ear, but we don’t know that right now, so let’s offer our hand.
There is also, however, a grave danger in giving Cordona, and Biden himself for that matter, too much credit too quickly and too easily. Republican presidents normalize corporate libertarian insanity. I’m going to evoke George W Bush’s twisted words here: Regarding Cordona, we are in danger of employing “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” Cordona and most of the cabinet picks exceed our terrifically low expectations. Biden himself simply meets our low expectations. He’s not Donald Trump. Seems when we are discussing presidents and secretaries of education nowadays, too often we say, “At least he’s not psychotic like DeVos,” or, “At least he’s not sociopathic like Duncan.” That’s really not good enough.
The educator in the United States who has no opinion about testing and charters is not paying attention. I personally know many teachers who don’t read or care a whit about testing or charters. That lackadaisical stance inhibits their abilities to make sound educational decisions. If you don’t know the history of testing, it’s too easy for a business to sell you test prep garbage. It’s too easy to convince you to keep the US Department of Education as the marketing arm of the edutech and charter industries. Cordona needs Diane Ravitch. Right now.
Seems I have been misspelling Cardona’s name. Well, this is all new and unknown territory, isn’t it.
Thanks to Duncan (and Obama), we’re certainly once bitten. I think there is sufficient skepticism and concern here. I think there is also reason to have hope and feel like we have a chance to impact positive changes. It’s absolutely not a time to tolerate toleration for the Ed Reform status quo. President-elect Biden specifically stated that there is too much testing in our country. We can’t let him forget that.
I appreciate your post and — like you…and many on here — am watching very, very closely. And won’t be silent if I’m not happy with positions.
We should be writing letters of congratulations at the same time as signing petitions calling for change. I congratulate Miguel Cardona and call on him to believe in me — instead of believing in Zuckerberg.
“Thanks to Duncan (and Obama), we’re certainly once bitten.”
Once bitten…
And now once Biden.
It remains to be seen if there is a difference.
If not, there is definitely a poem in it.
That’s the bright side, alright!
Yes, these are very good points.
One thing I noticed is that Cardona is – at least in background – the anti-Duncan. He was not raised in privilege and attended not just public schools, but the public universities that serve more middle class and low-income students than privileged students.
He got his BA from Central Connecticut State University and his masters from U. of Connecticut. Similar to Joe Biden! Whereas Obama and Arne Duncan did not.
Hopefully that will affect his perception and it will be different than Arne Duncan’s.
^^What I mean is that both Arne Duncan and Obama were products of private high schools and the private universities that serve hugely disproportionate children of privilege. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, per se, but it’s nice to see an education with state university credentials.
Sad to say, not being DeVos is a big deal in 2020 America. That’s where we are. Maybe 500 years from now we will have the 2520 version of Diane Ravitch as education secretary and we will finally have universal health care or M4All?
Joe: It’s the same “sad to say” that not being it45 is “a big deal in 2020 America.” So many people who are Bernie fans (like me) voted against it45,so…Biden.
For this most important Cabinet position, we can not only hope, but we must, if need be, do more.* I like emenaker529’s ideas about appointing Dr. Fenwick & Vasquez-Heilig to the other Education positions, where they may be able to do more good. I can’t imagine that Lily won’t be asked to fill one of these positions (or another), esp. that of the one crucial one Diane mentioned at 1:54 PM.
I’ll agree, again, w/what Left Coast Teacher so wisely said a while back:
*”Education is wounded. Pressure must be applied.”
Yes, this time, more than ever, we MUST apply REAL pressure. We need to get lessons from the Chicago Teachers Union on how to get this done…once & for all.
Our children have suffered enough, & they deserve no less than our most strenuous efforts.
“Power concedes nothing w/o demand. It never has & it never will.”
–Frederick Douglass
Jeanne Allen and her ilk are all rejoicing on Twitter that they got someone neutral
on corporate ed. reform. They’re losing their champion Betsy, but at least they have someone who won’t do anything to oppose or reverse their agenda.
They’re also congratulating themselves that they successfully sabotaged Lily and Ms. Fenwick with scurrilous smears that got some traction in the media, and scared off Biden.
EXAMPLE:
“Lily Eskelsen Garcia calls special ed kids ‘retarded.’ ”
Total b.s.
Years ago, when this allegedly happened, Lily immediately clarified meant to say “chronically tardy” not “chronically tarded.”
(“tarded” being falsely cited by Allen and the rest an abbreviation for “retarded”)
Think about what nonsense this false accusation was. A child’s special ed. condition is never “chronic,” as in something that is not innate, or that can be otherwise, or that can come and go, or something within the realm of that child’s choice. A person can’t be “chronically” six feet tall. They just are.
I’ve been teaching over 10 years, and I’ve heard that phrase countless times to refer to a child who’s constantly late for school …
“chronically tardy”.
I have NEVER heard those other two words spoken together … “chronically tarded” or even just “tarded”, as it’s a non-existent euphemism.
Lily apologized, or rather clarified herself in the moment, and then later after that speech, clarifying that she mis-spoke “tarded” for “tardy.”
However, it worked, as Biden went for a safer, easier choice that had no such falsely imputed baggage which he and his team would have to defend or explain as I just did here.
NPE takes credit for identifying the DFER-Chiefs for Change types and getting in their way.
Thank you! I would have liked to see Fenwick, but Cardona seems to not just be another DeVos, he also doesn’t seem like another Duncan.
The Rheeformers’ rejoicing is a red flag.
Joe Biden has always been willing to service the corporate class first, be it through the atrocious 1994 crime bill, the bankruptcy bill, and his eagerness to veto Medicare For All as a pandemic rages on. There was a reason he was known as the “Senator from Citibank.”
And let’s not forget his promise to his donors that “nothing will change” under a Biden presidency.
It’s hard not to be cynical.
An Educ Sec’y with no apparent stance on charters and testing, and comfortable with the billionaire takeover of public schooling? Another evasive centrist friendly to the status quo takes his seat in Biden’s cabinet, this one so low-profile it’s clear that education is on the back burner and Biden is running away from the fight. Only one thing will rescue public education from the tech, testing, and charter pirates looting schools: massive teacher strikes with parent support. Such strikes in ’19 showed how essential teachers are–when teachers strike, society shuts down, authorities rush to the table. Striking teachers in ’19 had enormous potential to stop the private war on public education but settled too soon for too little. Teachers’ wildcats with or without their recalcitrant union leaders plus parent opposition can get the job done.
Exactly, IRA!!!!!
Cardona looks like a lightweight. WHY Joe? Maybe because there aren’t many heavyweights in education aside from Diane, Bob and ED Hirsch.
Gosh, Ponderosa. It’s quite difficult to make me blush, but to be placed in such august company! Thank you for fighting the good fight for knowledge-based education! And happy holidays to you and yours!
I so agree
Yes.
A loud YES, ira! (See my comments above, under Joe Jersey’s & above Jack’s.)
Such strikes should have been militantly done 16 to 20 years ago, but Randi and Mulgrew would never lead that way, shamefully enough. Wake up!
Spot o!
Time to lace up our walking shoes!
OFF TOPIC but worth a look:
Gavin Newsom just released the actual moment during a Zoom conversation with CA Secretary of State Alex Padilla when he asked Padilla to replace Kamala Harris as a U.S. Senator for California.
Padilla appears shocked, then tries but fails to hold back the tears as he recalls his two Mexican immigrant parents who worked menial jobs while raising him.
Call this a real “feel-good” video:
(on Twitter,. so CLICK the “X” to hear the audio)
Thanks for this, Jack! The heart of every immigrant parent and every immigrant child should be lifted up at this exchange.
This video is beautiful. Brought tears to my eyes.
Me too.
Me, too.
Moi aussi!
Reading over these comments –
It a good thing teachers have such wellsprings of hope, so necessary to do the job. Because, damn, we are also cynical as hell – with good reason.
HOPE, n. Desire and expectation rolled into one.
Delicious Hope! when naught to man it left—
Of fortune destitute, of friends bereft;
When even his dog deserts him, and his goat
With tranquil disaffection chews his coat
While yet it hangs upon his back; then thou,
The star far-flaming on thine angel brow,
Descendest, radiant, from the skies to hint
The promise of a clerkship in the Mint.
Fogarty Weffing
A. Bierce in A Devil’s Dictionary
Thank you, Duane.
“Exit interview” w/DeVos.
https://www.educationnext.org/exit-interview-secretary-of-education-betsy-devos/
It’s boilerplate ed reform but what always strikes me is how they are 100% negative about public schools.
Four years as US Secretary of Education and Betsy DeVos couldn’t find a single public school that meets her approval, although she gushes over any private school, anywhere.
Just having a US Department of Education that doesn’t have contempt for public schools and public school students will be a big change after 20 years of this relentless ideologically motivated bashing. Somehow we ended up paying thousands of public employees who see no useful role for themselves other than as professional, full time critics of public schools.
Surely this guy can do better than that extremely low bar. If he just gets internet access to some of these lower income schools he’ll beat the ed reform record of the last 20 years. Just that one accomplishment would do it.
Ext interview for DeVos? “how do we get this cross and altar out of the building?” “Take it out through the Obama/Duncan basketball gym where they used to play HORSE to distribute education funding.
I think we are going to need an Edsorcist to get Betsy and her cross out.
I’m concerned that he advocating for schools to open. With Utah, that’s been a disaster, and other states should NOT follow our all student, all the time approach. Learn from Utah for once, people.
“DeVos: My team and I have worked very hard to advance education freedom—or school choice, as most know it. This idea, which President Trump rightly calls “the civil rights issue of our time,” is on the march across the country. Students in more states have more opportunities to pursue the education that’s right for them today than when I first took office. Consider the bold expansions in North Carolina, Florida, West Virginia, Tennessee, and even in Illinois. Right here in D.C., participation in the school choice program is now 50 percent higher than it was four years ago, and there is still massive unmet demand. We’ve changed the conversation at the federal level, too. Our proposal for Education Freedom Scholarships is the most ambitious in the nation’s history, and now there are more than 120 co-sponsors in Congress and more than 50 Senators who voted for Sen. McConnell’s Covid relief package who are helping us champion the idea.”
Allow me to translate for you from reformese: what this means is she accomplished absolutely nothing on behalf of students who attend the unfashionable public schools- so the vast, vast majority of students.
You basically paid 10,000 public employees to promote their personalized ideological vision of a country without public schools and you did that for the last four years. She can’t point to anything she did for kids in public schools because there is nothing.
This new guy can beat that record in a work week just by showing up.
As per usual, Peter “CURMUDGUCATION” Greene has provided a sound, balanced take:
(he also recaps the various statements from different factions that have just come out in response to the news about Cardona):
https://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2020/12/nobody-hates-miguel-cardona-so-far.html
True that. With Diane’s comments, a good perspective on the nomination. Thanks.
Yeah, that was my reaction, and when Peter says it, I know that is what I meant. 🙂
While much of this seems accurate, a key piece of the big picture is missing: the Democratic Party’s plans to use online learning to vocationalize education – and its support from Silicon Valley and Wall Street: https://newpol.org/bidens-pick-for-secretary-of-education-what-to-expect-from-cardona/
Thank you for writing that informative article. Forewarned is forearmed!
Yes, thank you. That was important.
Great article. If he wants to impose Gates’ agenda, teachers should protest loudly. If they put more pressure on him than the Gates people, he may cave to the wisdom of experienced teachers. We do not need another subservient bureaucrat.
He was influenced by a man belonging to an Ed policy group funded by millionaires. So it may be a softer side of Duncan…..not happy,,,,,hey!
Sorry I’m dense today: what man?
Well, what do you know? I (and my wife, and my father in-law) also are alumni of Central CT State University. An excellent school. I am a retired math teacher . My father in-law is a retired science teacher from Meriden, CT. He probably had Miguel Cardena in one of his classes(he doesn’t remember much these days). How cool is that? CCSU was the first (this is disputed) teacher’s college in the US. They were called Normal Schools then.
More funding for low SES students. More real teachers, less virtual learning, better facilities for low SES students in their neighborhoods. Public schools, charge.
A few years ago, I was interviewed for a job managing an editorial team. The person interviewing me wasn’t interested in the least in WHETHER I COULD EDIT. Didn’t even bother to test for these or to ask me a single question related to editing. He was interested in what I knew about marketing.
Similarly, teachers are often interviewed these days with little or no vetting of their actual knowledge of the subjects that will supposedly be teaching. Is this “biology teacher” actually a biologist? Instead, the conversations are all EdSpeak. “What can you do in your classroom to ensure that you identify standards in need of remediation, and how would you remediate them?” (Never mind that this person doesn’t actually mean that standards are to be remediated, though they need this, but I’m trying to be as accurate as possible here–to capture the sloppiness of both speech AND thought of administrators who carry out the Deform program. We’ve gone so far down the road of meaningless, or meaningful but highly questionable, EdSpeak drivel that people don’t even stop to think, much, at all, about what they say or about the precepts they act upon. They never, for example, stop to think, Gee, these “standards” are almost entirely a list of vague, highly abstract skills. Is that REALLY what we most want to be teaching? Will students leave here actually KNOWING anything? They don’t stop to think, if a standard is this general and vague and broad, can one actually valid test for achievement of it? What would that even mean?)
Welcome to Laputa.
cx: validly, ofc
I saw that Cardona had the good sense to issue a directive that students doing online classes during the pandemic could be graded pass/fail and to ensure that universities in the state would accept such grades on transcripts. Great. However, I’m not optimistic that this administration is going to scuttle the federal standardized testing mandate. Teachers, led by their unions, need to take to the streets to make this happen. Enough is enough.
It also looks as though he will be serious about student loan relief and about working toward more equitable funding for schools attended by the poor. However, I hear a politician or bureaucrat use the term “for-profit charters” one more time, I’m going to scream. This is a sure tell that he or she has no idea what he or she is talking about–no notion how charters work in this country.
Perhaps they do have a notion of what “for-profit charters” are, but they use the term to distract the public.
One would think they are aware of all the self-dealing occurring with the “charter school management” companies hired to run the “non-profit” charter schools.
The nominee for Secretary Education, Dr. Miguel Cardona has been an undergraduate student, a teacher, principal and superintended in Connecticut since 1997.
He received a BA in education in 1997, a masters degree in Bilingual and Bicultural Education in 2001, a 6th year Certificate in Educational Leadership, and an Ed.D in Educational Leadership in 2012. He also completed the Executive Leadership Program in “Superintendency and Education System Administration” in 2012. For about five academic years he was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Connecticut (UConn) where he received all of his graduate degrees.
Dr. Miguel Cardona’s LinkedIn biography does not show any classroom teaching experience during the 16 years that he worked in Meriden Public Schools. For ten of those years he was a Principal, then he became a Performance and Evaluation Specialist for two years, then an Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning. From that position he became Commissioner in the Connecticut Department of Education, a position he has held for a year and five months according to LinkedIn.
In 2001, the University of Connecticut Foundation was supplied with a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF) grant for $1,987,600 “to provide leadership development for superintendents and principals from public and private schools focused on technology integration and whole systems change.” This grant may have helped to jump-start the UConn program in Educational Leadership where two faculty seem to be in charge. Good news: A brief check shows no affiliation with the Broad Foundation.
Professor Robert Villanova, Ph.D. was Connecticut Superintendent of the Year in 2008, There is no additional information at the UConn website.
Dr. Morgaen Donaldson is a specialist in teacher evaluation. She studied at Harvard and Princeton. Her bio says that she served “as a Project Director in a Gates Foundation-funded effort to replicate the best practices of small schools successfully serving low-income and minority populations.” In a Chalkbeat link, she is quoted twice as an informed critic of that failed effort. I judge that she interviewed participants at more than one location, including Hillsborough County Schools in Florida. Her Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Teacher Evaluation, will be published by Routledge in early 2021.
During the time that Miguel Cardona has been working as an educator in Connecticut, the B&MGF has poured $23,801,261 into grants, about half of these to Achievement First for expansions of charter schools and tech-based education (mislabeled personalized learning) and always with teachers assumed to be in need “professional development,” curricula, and tests. The largest single Gates grant, nearly $5 million, went to support “evidence-based interventions in the Rise network of ten high schools in nine Connecticut districts.
I will not continue with this exercise. I have not seen a full resume for this candidate. Given my brief look at some of his credentials I would certainly ask why his LinkedIn profile does not include the role of teacher in any grade level or subject.
I also think he cannot be ignorant of the B&MGF money flowing into Connecticut charter schools, or the Gates-funded Common Core programs in the state, or the $942,092 that the sent to the infamous Jumoke Academy for the high sounding aim of promoting “collaboration between “traditional” and charter schools on College Ready strategies, teacher effectiveness, personalized learning.”
Any one in Congress who interviews Dr. Miguel Cardona will find ample background material to question him about. He cannot claim to be ignorant of the damage done to real public schools by the B&MGF, the myth making skills of charter school promoters, and sales pitches for tech-based instruction well before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Call me this: “trying to be openminded in the face of big reasons for concern.”
Laura does her homework better than anybody
She’s our E.F. Hutton.
Indeed she is!
This article says he began teaching 4th grade in 1998 (he would have been 23yo) at Israel Putnam elem, then Hanover elem, where he was promoted to principal of Hanover elem at age 28 (2003). So that’s five years’ teaching. https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/biden-to-name-connecticuts-miguel-cardona-as-education-secretary-pick/2389461/
Thank you, Laura. You, Mercedes Schneider & Diane are the 3 Musketeers of Ed. Research, always keeping us well-informed.
Out of curiosity, does the fact that he comes recommended from Linda Darling-Hammond shift anyone’s perspective? I would have loved her as an Ed Secretary.
Darling-Hammond was one of the principal architects of the edTPA. That alone makes her a bad actor in my book.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/smacking-down-the-opposit_b_8490892
Agree. She has set herself up for life as a consultant and paid speaker. She will parlay her role as kingmaker on the “search” committee into even more benefits. And, guess what? LDH very little classroom experience.
Sent from the all new Aol app for iOS
What Christine and Fred said.
Statement from the AFT: https://www.aft.org/press-release/aft-nomination-dr-miguel-cardona-education-secretary
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/miguel-cardona-betsy-devos-repeal-title-ix-policy_n_5fe117cbc5b6e1ce8334f655
Looks like he’s way better than the last two awful secretaries. One thing I have in mind is how he’s going to reconcile the ugly feud between pro-charters/deformers and teacher’s unions. I guess the first challenge is how to re-open the schools.
” I will not judge him until I see how he handles not only the present dire moment, but the legacy of twenty years of failed federal policy.”
There is only one way to stop the billionaires’ agenda in education: fight against them, because they have the power. A true politician doesn’t fight, but does politics, which means offers compromises. Cardona appears to be a true politician, and hence will not prevent the billionaires from screwing with education.
In any case, I doubt we ever expected to be able to rely on the secretary of education to fight our battles for us.
This is a fraud hit piece of propaganda and lies to stop school CHOICE! But trust and believe, that black Parents want more school CHOICE option and high quality alternatives to low performing zip code schools.
Delvin Champagne
Licensed Occupational Therapy Special Educator
Like Ohio’s ECOT?
Read Slaying Goliath to find out who wins with charter schools. Spoiler alert- it’s not black families, not communities and, not taxpayers who are victims of the associated financial fraud.
[…] and school choice, who called Cardona "good news," and education historian Diane Ravitch, who also called the pick "good news" because he does not seem to be aligned with advocates for charter schools and vouchers. […]
Today, Biden announced San Diego Unified’s School Super, Dr. Cindy Marten, to be the Deputy Sec. of Education. As a parent of a high school sophomore in SDUSD, I’m here to say that this pick doesn’t bode well for American education. Education under Cindy Marten has been a nightmare of emphasis on testing and rigor, abysmal arts programming, and inequity across schools (under Dr. Marten, the office for diversity and education was shuttered). We like to say in our household that if something is good for the kids, Cindy Marten will do the opposite. So glad we only have two more years in the school system and know exactly how to navigate the rest of it to get it over with.
Sorry to hear that. I know Cindy Marten, and I was delighted to hear that she will be #2 at ED. She has far more experience than Dr. Cardona.
Not good news. I hope some of our research minded bloggers dig into this nominee and the rationale for her choice. If Cardona had a say in this appointment, we really have to worry.
I wouldn’t take this comment seriously. I have known Cindy for 15 years. She is far more experienced than Cardona and deeply committed to child-centered practices. Cardona did not choose her. He was assistant superintendent in a district for 9,000 children. She ran a district for more than 100,000 students.
Yes, one comment is not enough, and I overstated the reason for concern, but I would like to hear more about her. I would like to hear more from those who have worked under her, particularly teachers. Actually, I long for the “good old days,” if they ever existed, when I didn’t pay much attention to the feds at all!
You will hear more about her here, but not yet.
Let’s get Cardona and Marten confirmed first.
All will be explained!
Why does a more qualified woman come in second to prop up a male mediocrity?
How unenlightened of Dr. Jill and Darling-Hammond.
Ask the people you mentioned. I have a guess.
[…] who called Cardona “good news,” and education historian Diane Ravitch, who also called the pick “good news” because he does not seem to be aligned with advocates for charter schools and […]