Training Secretary Miguel Cardona got here to the Monitor breakfast on September 13 bearing “items,” as he put it: a stack of thick, shiny “Elevate the Bar” brochures touting his division’s objectives. He had simply gotten off a back-to-school bus tour within the coronary heart of the USA, and says he feels “extra optimistic than regular.”
Dr. Cardona talked about how glad it’s to place insurance policies in perspective, “whether or not it is in early childhood applications in Illinois or after-school applications in Minnesota. It is good to see college students engaged.”
Nonetheless, he was fast so as to add that these are troublesome occasions for training, whether or not it’s the ongoing efforts of Ok-12 colleges to get well from pandemic “studying loss,” instructor shortages, or the Division of Training’s new post-Supreme Court docket scholar debt reduction plan. It struck the previous program and in June, the Supreme Court docket additionally ended affirmative motion — admissions on racial grounds — at schools and universities, a subject clearly near Dr. Cardona’s coronary heart. He was born in Meriden, Connecticut, to Puerto Rican mother and father, and English is his second language. He was the primary in his household to attend college.
“Increased training has modified the trajectory of my life and the lives of my kids,” says Dr. Cardona, the mum or dad of a school sophomore and highschool senior.
Now the secretary is pursuing “legacy admissions” — the observe of favoring college students from alumni or donor ties, Which the observatory covered. In July he swore She launched a civil rights investigation In Harvard College Admissions Practices.
Dr Cardona insists he has no bias towards elite universities – their presidents “perceive what we are attempting to do” – regardless of his decidedly non-elite background. After attending technical highschool, he spent 4 years repairing vehicles after which enrolled at Central Connecticut State College.
“I knew I could not fail as a result of my mother and father had sacrificed a lot for me to have an opportunity to go to varsity,” Dr. Cardona says.
At this time, he talks about visiting colleges that assist “homeless children, college students residing in vehicles, get their diplomas.” I wish to increase that.”
I am thrilled that Al-Monitor’s training correspondents — Jackie Vallee, who lives in Nevada, and Ira Porter, who lives in Delaware — had been in a position to come to Washington for breakfast. Jackie’s protection might be discovered right here: Training Secretary: America’s greater training system is ‘damaged’. And the sound of the session It can be found here.
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