When he started going to school in the United States and only spoke Spanish,
Miguel Cardona had to adapt to a system that was not designed for him, and he has dedicated his life to helping other students in similar circumstances, a mission he plans to continue as Secretary of Education.
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Cardona, 45, was confirmed Monday by the Senate as the head of U.S. education, a position from which he will have to lead the promise of the American president, Joe Biden, to reopen by May most country schools that teach children under 14, Now closed due to the pandemic.
“There is no way to replace the experience of a class, of our students learning in front of their teacher,” the new Secretary of Education said during his confirmation hearing in the Senate in early February.
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Cardona, born in Connecticut to Puerto Rican parents, is the second person with Puerto Rican roots and the third Latin to be promoted to Secretary of Education of the United States, After John B. King, Jr. (2016-2017) and Lauro Cavazos (1988-1990).
Cardona’s parents, Héctor and Sara, instilled in him from an early age the importance of hard work, community service and education.
When Biden announced his nomination in December, Cardona recalled his childhood in government-subsidized housing in the city of Meriden, Connecticut, where his grandparents Avelino and Germana had moved from Aguada, Puerto Rico to the United States. search for new opportunities.
Cardona’s parents, Hector and Sara, li “Instill the importance of hard work, community service and education from an early age”, He recounted in his December speech.
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Although he arrived at Meriden Public School without speaking a word of English,
Cardona eventually became the first of his family to graduate from college, and later a “teacher, school principal and deputy superintendent” in the same city, where his two daughters are now studying. .
“I, being bilingual and bicultural, am as American as apple pie and rice with beans. And for me, education was what put me on the same level as the others,” he said. assure Cardona in the same speech.
Virtual education for children is a support, but they expect a gradual return to the classroom.
Throughout his meteoric career, which made him a school principal at just 27 years old and a Connecticut Commissioner of Education at 43, Cardona has focused especially at the foot of the canyon of academic success among Latin and black students with respect to those who are white or of Asian descent.
“For too many students, their zip code and skin color remains the one that best predicts the opportunities they will have throughout their lives,” he lamented in the said speech.
According to Cardona, US has invested too much “money in interventions and bandages to address disparities”, When what it should do is “create a broad and strong foundation of universal and quality early education,” and improve students ’“ emotional and social supports ”.
Those who know him well say he doesn’t think like a politician or an ideologue, and that’s why they believe he’s capable of spurring “changes toward greater equality” for minority students “without alienating those who don’t yet understand” the need to that happens, one of his former classmates, Robert Villanova, told Education Week magazine.
His big challenge: reopening schools
His big challenge that came to office will be to implement one of Biden’s big goals in his first 100 days in power, the reopening of most schools for under-14s, and in his confirmation hearing. in February he already pledged to do “Everything possible” to achieve this goal “safely.”
This milestone has been met with resistance from teachers ’unions, however
Cardona already has experience with the subject: as Connecticut Commissioner of Education, Had to deal with the same dilemma last year, when the covid-19 hit the United States and the entire country switched to remote learning overnight.
Cardona then realized that this system was failing many students, especially the poorest, as some 140,000 students across their state were not connecting to online classes. “Inequalities have really come to the surface.
The impact of this will last for generations, “Cardona warned in an interview last year with local newspaper CT Mirror.
Cardona then launched a successful campaign for schools to once again offer face-to-face classes, And contributed to all Connecticut districts at least one adopting some form of in-person education by last fall, although some closed again later, according to the Washington Post.
This perseverance will be key to carrying out Biden’s mission in a country where many teachers fear returning to the classrooms, but the White House trusts Cardona’s soul as an educator.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
* With information from agencies
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