Learning
Education Secretary Nominee Is A Trailblazer in Ethnic Studies
Cardona’s trademark achievement was overseeing the institution of the country s first government-mandated ethnic studies class. Min
City Journal’s Max Eden notes that many heaved a sigh of relief when President Biden nominated Miguel Cardona to become Secretary of Education.
He’s at least described as “an agnostic” on charter schools and, as Connecticut Commissioner of Education, admitted that students would fare better with in-school instruction.
But that sigh of relief was premature.
Eden points out that Cardona’s trademark achievement was directing the installation of the first government-mandated ethic studies class in the country. Eden explains:
eye on the news
Secretary of Ethnic Studies? President Biden’s choice to lead the Education Department has a thin record except in one trailblazing area.
Politics and law
Education
President Biden’s nomination of Miguel Cardona to be Secretary of Education was greeted with a sigh of relief from some education reformers more for who he isn’t than for who he is. He isn’t a teachers’ union leader. He’s not a tenured radical. He isn’t a vocal charter school opponent.
Cardona doesn’t, in fact, have much of a paper trail. After working as an elementary school teacher and principal, he became an assistant superintendent for Connecticut’s Meriden School District (which serves about 8,000 students) in 2015. He was appointed Connecticut’s education commissioner in August 2019, where he served for a little over a year before being tapped for the presidential Cabinet.