[Senate Hearing 117-169]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 117-169
NOMINATION OF MIGUEL CARDONA
TO SERVE AS
SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
=======================================================================
HEARING
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
EXAMINING THE NOMINATION OF MIGUEL A. CARDONA, OF CONNECTICUT, TO BE
SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
__________
FEBRUARY 3, 2021
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
46-749 PDF WASHINGTON : 2022
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COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee, Chairman
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee, Chairman
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming PATTY MURRAY, Washington
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina BERNARD SANDERS (I), Vermont
RAND Paul, Kentucky ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania
SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut
PAT ROBERTS, Kansas ELIZABETH WARREN, Massachusetts
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska TIM KAINE, Virginia
TIM SCOTT, South Carolina MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire
MITT ROMNEY, Utah TINA SMITH, Minnesota
MIKE BRAUN, Indiana DOUG JONES, Alabama
KELLY Loeffler, Georgia JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
David P. Cleary, Republican Staff Director
Lindsey Ward Seidman, Republican Deputy Staff Director
Evan Schatz, Minority Staff Director
John Righter, Minority Deputy Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
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STATEMENTS
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2021
Page
Committee Members
Murray, Hon. Patty, Chair, Pro Tempore, Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions, Opening statement.............. 1
Burr, Hon. Richard, Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from the State
of North Carolina, Opening statement........................... 5
Witnesses
Cardona, Hon. Miguel, Meriden, CT................................ 11
Prepared statement........................................... 12
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.
America's Public Television Stations, letter of support for
Hon. Miguel Cardona........................................ 50
Every Hour Counts Network, letter of support for Hon. Miguel
Cardona.................................................... 51
National Education Association, letter of support for Hon.
Miguel Cardona............................................. 52
NOMINATION OF MIGUEL CARDONA
TO SERVE AS
SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
----------
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:01 a.m., in
room SD-430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Patty Murray,
Madam Chair (Pro Tempore) of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Murray [presiding], Casey, Baldwin,
Murphy, Kaine, Hassan, Smith, Rosen, Lujan, Warren, Burr, Paul,
Collins, Cassidy, Murkowski, Braun, Marshall, Scott, and
Romney.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR MURRAY
The Chair pro tempore. The Senate Committee on Health,
Education, Labor, and Pensions will please come to order.
Today, we are holding a hearing on the nomination of Dr.
Miguel Cardona to be the Secretary of the Department of
Education. Senator Burr and I will each have an opening
statement, and then I will recognize Senator Blumenthal, who
has joined our Committee today to introduce Dr. Cardona,
followed by an introduction from Senator Murphy. After Dr.
Cardona gives his testimony, Senators will have 5 minutes each
for a round of questions, and I am happy to continue for a
second round if Senators have any remaining questions.
Before we begin, I also want to walk through the COVID-19
safety protocols in place. We will follow the advice of the
Attending Physician and the Sergeant at Arms in conducting this
hearing. Committee Members and our witnesses are seated at
least 6 feet apart. That means we are unable to have the public
or the media attend in person, but the hearing is available on
our Committee website at www.help.senate.gov. Some Senators,
including myself, are participating by videoconference. And I
am very grateful to the Sergeant at Arms, the Capitol Police,
the Architect of the Capitol, the Press Gallery, the Rules
Committee, and our Committee staff for all of their hard work
to help us all stay safe and healthy.
This is the first meeting of the HELP Committee in this new
Congress. I am immensely honored today to take the helm of the
Committee I believe represents the heart and soul of this
Country, from healthcare, to education, to supporting workers
and retirees, to childcare, to ensuring everyone can live with
dignity and respect. The issues that we tackle are the issues
families across this Country face in their everyday lives.
I want to welcome Senators Hickenlooper, Lujan, and
Marshall, who will be joining us on this Committee, and I look
forward to welcoming all of our new Members soon.
Also, given that Senator Warren will be leaving the
Committee, before she does, I just want to say she has been a
powerful voice in this room for families in Massachusetts and
nationwide. We will miss her at these hearings, but I know that
even though she is leaving our Committee, she will continue to
be a champion for patients and parents, children, students,
borrowers, workers, retirees, and families across the Country.
And I look forward myself to continuing to work with her to
make progress and expand access to quality, affordable
childcare; ensure healthcare is a right, not a privilege; give
every student the opportunity to grow and thrive; reduce
student debt; empower workers; and so much more.
Finally, before we begin, I do want to recognize my partner
across the dais, Ranking Member Burr, and welcome him to this
new role. Senator Burr and I have had positive conversations
about how this Committee can continue its long history of
working together to address issues critical to the American
people.
I look forward to working with all of you, from both sides
of the aisle, as we address the COVID-19 pandemic, the economic
crisis facing many, and so many other critical issues. I hope
today is the beginning of a productive, next chapter for this
Committee, building on our bipartisan history, where we work
together to bring nominees and legislation through this
Committee and onto the Senate floor. I look forward to our
partnership, Senator Burr, and I welcome our new Members to the
Committee and hope to hear about your priorities in the days
ahead.
I also would like to specifically thank Senator Burr for
his willingness to work with me so that we could schedule
today's hearing with Dr. Cardona and tomorrow's hearing with
Mayor Walsh.
Dr. Cardona, thank you for joining us, and I would like to
welcome your wife, Marissa, as well. I am glad she could be
here with you today, and I know your children are watching, as
well. They must be very proud.
President Biden announced his intent to nominate Dr.
Cardona on December 22, 2020. The Committee received Dr.
Cardona's HELP Committee paperwork on January 15, and his
Office of Government Ethics paperwork, including his public
financial disclosure and ethics agreement, on January 20. His
formal nomination also arrived January 20, 2021.
Dr. Cardona, we have not met yet in person, but I am very
much looking forward to meeting with you in the future, and I
know we will be working a lot together, both virtually and in
person when we can. I am excited to start working with you and
the Biden-Harris administration to serve public schools,
colleges, students, borrowers, educators, and families across
our Country. And I hope to work with my colleagues here in
Congress to confirm you as quickly as possible, given the
urgency of this pandemic and its impact on our students, all
the ways former President Trump's utter failure to handle have
put us behind, and the longstanding inequities this crisis has
exacerbated.
Under the Trump administration, tests and PPE were hard to
get. Federal guidance was politically motivated and unclear,
and the path to safely reopening schools in person was chaotic
and uncertain. Families are now counting on us to get things on
track, fast. The stories I have heard from Washington State
made clear how desperately we need a secretary who will work
with students, parents and caregivers, educators and school
administrators, state, local, and tribal officials, and public
health officials, to help our schools safely reopen for in-
person learning.
I heard from a mother in Yakima, whose children are sharing
one iPhone to learn. I heard from a father of a high school
freshman in Spokane, who is worried about the social and
psychological toll the pandemic is taking on his son. And I
heard about students from the Lummi Nation, who are trying to
focus on remote classes while in multi-generational households
on shared, spotty broadband. And I know there are so many
similar stories from people in my state and across the entire
Country.
Our students and our schools are in crisis, and every day
without an experienced leader at the Department of Education is
a day we are losing precious ground. We know the pandemic is
setting back learning for all students and compounding long-
standing inequities in our education system. Reports estimate
that, compared to a typical year, this pandemic has set back
learning by 1 to 3 months for White students, and 3 to 5 months
for students of color.
We know remote classes can make learning more difficult,
impossible even, for the one in four students who have no
access to the internet at home. And families of color are
significantly more likely to experience limited internet and
device inaccessibility. We know many students have lost access
to critical resources, like mental health services and school
meals, and school counselors and extracurricular activities,
and much more.
The pain of this pandemic is not felt equally. Instead, it
is deepening systemic inequities that were already incredibly
damaging for students of color, students from families with low
incomes, students with disabilities, women, English learners,
students who are experiencing homelessness, and many others.
For those pursuing higher education, it has not only
disrupted classrooms and dorms. It has upended our economy,
making it harder for students already stretching their budgets
to pay tuition or rent, or pay for food and other basic needs.
For parents across the Country, it is also exacerbating our
longstanding childcare crisis, making things that much harder
for them and their children.
We desperately need more funding and resources for schools,
like education relief that President Biden called for in his
American Rescue Plan.
We need clear and actionable guidance for schools working
to safely reopen for in-person learning.
We need more direct financial assistance for students,
including student debt relief, and a Secretary of Education who
is ready to tackle all of this and more on day one.
Given Dr. Cardona's background, there is no question he is
ready for these challenges. And after 4 years of a Secretary of
Education who had no experience in public education, I am
thrilled to have a nominee before us who is a former elementary
school teacher, a former adjunct professor, a former principal,
and a former assistant superintendent. As a former preschool
teacher myself, I know firsthand how valuable that classroom
perspective is when working on these issues.
Dr. Cardona will not just bring much-needed teaching
experience to the Department, but also invaluable personal
experience. As an English-language learner himself, Dr. Cardona
knows that all students can succeed when given access to a high
quality, public education. And he has spent his whole career
working to ensure every student can reach their full potential,
no matter the language they speak, or their zip code, or
income, or race, or ethnicity, their gender, their sexual
orientation, or their disability.
As assistant superintendent, Dr. Cardona showed new
teachers around the community's economically disparate
neighborhoods to help them understand the students that they
served.
During this pandemic, he has continued to center the needs
of students facing inequities in his work as Connecticut's
Education Commissioner. Under his leadership, Connecticut
became the first state in the Nation to ensure every one of its
public school students has access to a laptop and a high-speed
internet connection to engage in remote learning.
Dr. Cardona is a proven collaborative leader. He is a
champion for public schools, and he is an excellent choice to
lead the Department of Education through the challenges ahead.
Challenges, like meeting President Biden's goal of safely
reopening the majority of our K through 8 schools for in-person
learning within his first 100 days of office.
Challenges, like addressing learning loss due to COVID,
which means fulfilling our moral imperative to measure
students' academic, social, and emotional needs, and provide
with substantial resources and guidance that states and school
districts require to address them, and the many challenges that
existed long before COVID-19 struck, but have become so much
more severe through this pandemic.
We need to address the inequities permeating our education
system, from early education through higher education, that
make it much harder for students of color, students from
families with low incomes, and many others to succeed. And that
starts with long-overdue efforts to address inequitable school
funding and inaccess to high-quality and rigorous curriculum,
racial and socioeconomic school segregation, the use of
seclusion and restraint, the school-to-prison pipeline, and
more.
We also need to make sure every child can benefit from pre-
K and early learning experiences that set them up for success.
We need to address the student debt crisis and provide
student loan borrowers with relief by continuing the freeze on
payments and interest President Biden extended, and helping
borrowers to reduce their debt.
We need to overhaul our financial aid system, implementing
reforms we recently passed in Congress, making it simpler for
students and families to get help, and ensuring student loan
companies meet high standards of service and transparency.
We need to make sure higher education is affordable so cost
never prevents a student from going to college, and so every
student can make ends meet while attending school, and make a
living without being crushed by student debt after they leave.
We need to make higher education accessible so every
person, especially students of color, students with low
incomes, students with disabilities, and others traditionally
left out of higher education can find the opportunity that is
right for them, be it a community college or a 4-year college
or university, including minority-serving institutions, or a
workforce training program or apprenticeship.
We need to make sure higher education is accountable so
every student is protected from bad actors, like predatory,
for-profit colleges, empowered with better information about
college outcomes, and provided the support they need to receive
their degree.
We need to make sure every campus is safe from infectious
disease outbreaks, from gun violence, and from bullying,
harassment, and sexual assaults.
In short, we have a lot of work to do. We have an excellent
candidate to help us get it done, and we have no time to waste.
Any Senator who has heard from a parent who wants to get their
child back to the classroom safely, and I am sure everyone here
has, should vote to advance and confirm Dr. Cardona without
hesitation. And I am hopeful when the time comes, they will do
just that.
Finally, I would like to ask unanimous consent to enter
into the record 37 letters of support for Dr. Cardona's
nomination for Education Secretary, signed by over 400
individuals and groups representing educators, school
administrators, civil rights organizations, non-profits, and a
bipartisan group of Governors. So ordered.
[The information referred to can be found on page 50]
The Chair pro tempore. I now recognize Senator Burr to give
his opening remarks.
Senator Burr, welcome.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BURR
Senator Burr. Well, Madam Chair, I thank you. I look
forward to working with you specifically this session of
Congress. I am grateful to my colleagues, maybe a little
premature than what the timing had, that we will organize at
some point today, and hopefully I will be the Ranking Member of
this Committee.
This Committee has a great history of bipartisanship, and I
expect that will continue. Patty Murray and I have a history of
working together to run the Veterans Affairs Committee, so this
is not new for the two of us, and I look forward to continuing
to build on the relationship we already have.
My main priority for this Committee is healthcare. We
should all, Senators, staff, and the Administration, anticipate
spending more time than we can imagine today on the response to
COVID-19, and to make sure that we are better prepared for the
next one. This includes looking at supply chains and making
sure that we make in the United States what we need, not
through burdensome requirements, but through incentives.
We also need to work to make sure the United States
Research Enterprise is aware of and better prepared for the
threats of our enemies.
We need to continue to prioritize and enable and
incentivizing private sector innovation. We have seen what the
private sector can do. A vaccine developed and authorized less
than a year after a novel virus was discovered should become
the norm and not the exception. FDA has shown incredible speed
and flexibility, and the FDA user fee reauthorization
discussion later this Congress is a good chance to examine how
the speed and flexibility can help in the fight against serious
conditions with no treatments that exist today. If we can speed
bureaucracy up and not abandon the gold standard of safety and
efficacy, with as much money as the FDA already has, I want to
know why we cannot have that be the new baseline expectations.
We will need to conduct vigorous oversight. While I am sure
that many of my Democratic friends will just want to blame the
last administration for every problem that exists, and we know
they made their share of mistakes, but we also need to dig
deeper into the laws and agencies that we created to see what
works and what needs to be fixed. For example, if it was not
for cultural arrogance of the bureaucracy at the CDC, we might
have had diagnostic tests a lot sooner than we did in this
Country. We need to fix the problem that has been exposed, not
just blame the last group that were here.
I hope to be able to be a partner in getting President
Biden's cabinet quickly operational, with fair, qualified
candidates who have submitted the necessary paperwork and forms
for the Office of Government Ethics in the timeframe that
Senator Murray and her colleagues requested of President
Trump's nominees. We will not always agree on which nominees
meet these goals, and I think you will see the differences in
who we have asked this week and who is testifying before us
next week.
Now, turning to Dr. Cardona. Welcome. Welcome to you, to
your wife, Marissa, to your children, who are in the annex
behind us. And I am told that they are going to come out when
you start your testimony. I do not want them to miss it live
and in person, and we can adhere to the separation guidelines
and have them over there. I also want to welcome your parents,
who I understand are--did not make the trip because of COVID,
but they will be watching this on TV. Your entire family, I
know, is proud of this nomination.
The fact that you have been asked to lead the Department of
Education at a very challenging time is daunting for anybody.
You have had a meteoric rise from a classroom teacher to a
principal, to a superintendent, from a small State of
Connecticut. You should be proud of that, and I am glad the
President has nominated you for this position.
Millions of children are stuck at home trying to learn.
Parents are at their wits' end, and the adults running public
schools across the Country are failing to actually follow the
science and open schools safely. CDC experts just released a
paper in the Journal of American Medical Association on January
26 that said this, and I quote. The preponderance of available
evidence from the fall school semester has been reassuring in
as far as the type of rapid spread that was frequently observed
in congregate living facilities or high-density worksites has
not been reported in an education setting in schools, unquote.
That says to me that we should be seriously talking about
reopening schools as quickly as possible. That is what the
science tells us and, quite frankly, that is what students and
parents need.
The CDC experts went on to say, and I quote, all
recommended mitigation measures in schools must continue:
requiring universal face mask use, increasing physical
distancing by de-densifying classrooms and common areas, using
hybrid attendance models when needed to limit the number of
contacts and prevent crowding, increasing room ventilation, and
expanding screening testing to rapidly identify and isolate
asymptomatic infected individuals.
In the five COVID bills we passed last year, Congress has
provided over $67 billion for K through 12, and $36 billion for
higher education. That is in addition to the regular
appropriated dollars for these activities, and that is also on
top of the hundreds of billions of dollars from state and local
sources.
We need schools to open safely and to stay open safely.
While that was considered partisan and dangerous when some
suggested it last year, since President Biden won and over a
million vaccines from Operation Warp Speed being delivered
daily, more folks have changed their tune. And I welcome that
change. COVID-19-related school closures have led to
significant learning loss, and we need to get caught up and
help all our students.
But, one-size-fits-all requirements from Washington will
only further hurt the situation. So, I hope that you will
refrain from the mistake so many have made of your
predecessors, which is that just because you have a good idea,
that does not mean everybody should follow it based upon the
makeup of their school systems.
Even school districts--each school district, college,
university, community college, state and community, faces a
different pandemic in a different circumstance. Trying to treat
them as a monolith instead of providing flexible advice for
states and localities to use, if applicable and useful, would
be a mistake.
I hope you will follow the examples of Richard Riley and
Lamar Alexander, both Governors, and one the former Chairman of
this Committee, and recognize that you cannot run a Nation's
schools or colleges from Washington, DC, but we can inspire
them and we can help them.
Finally, we are going to have to have an adult conversation
about academic testing for this school year. While we do need
to know how much educational harm has happened, I am not sure
that the Federal accountability system and existing state tests
are the right thing at this moment.
I understand the Department of Education sent a letter last
week to chief state school officers, saying the previous
February 1 deadline for seeking waivers was being extended.
However, it did not set a new deadline. I hope that you and my
colleagues in Senate are willing to engage in a conversation
about whether we need to pause for one year the accountability
and testing requirements as we grapple with the pandemic.
I also want to caution you, and especially some of the
staff that will show up at the Department, that the law does
not give you the authority to impose a bunch of conditions on
states seeking waivers. Some of your predecessors thought that
they could use the need for waivers to bully states into
submission on some of their preferred policy objectives that
were not in the law. The law does not allow you to do that, or
any secretary of education, and I hope, Commissioner, you will
respect those limitations.
Let me turn to student loans for one minute. Last year,
Congress acted to pause loan repayments for all borrowers as we
grappled with coronavirus. Then, the Trump administration, now
the Biden administration, have extended the pause so borrowers
have a certain certainty for a long time.
But, I am not eager to see the Biden administration pursue
dangerous and foolhardy proposals to simply forgive student
loans. The claims that some--by some that the Higher Education
Act allows this would stretch the law beyond recognition. I
hope that you and the White House do not pursue that.
Instead, I invite you to work with Republicans and
Democrats in Senate to pass legislation that dramatically
simplifies student loan repayment options, allows borrowers to
pay whatever they can reasonably afford, capped at 10 percent
of their discretionary income, and have their loan forgiven
after 20 years. This is bipartisan legislation that I have
previously introduced with Senator Angus King, and I am sure we
would be happy to work with the Administration and you to pass
this into law in the next 100 days. But, I will oppose any
effort to simply move debt from borrowers onto taxpayers.
In conclusion, I plan to conduct rigorous oversight,
especially on the response of COVID-19, and will ask fair but
difficult and probing questions on the decisions that you make
and the way the agency operates. You would expect that from an
oversight committee. I will expect honest, complete, and timely
answers. I hope you can commit to working with me on that.
Commissioner Cardona, I expect by the end of this hearing,
I will be able to support your nomination, and I will encourage
all of my colleagues on my side to support you, as well, and to
move as expeditiously to have you sworn in as the next
Secretary of Education. I look forward to working with you.
I thank the Madam Chair.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you very much, Senator Burr.
We will now move to Dr. Cardona and our colleague, Senator
Blumenthal, has joined us today to help introduce Dr. Cardona.
I will recognize him first, followed by Senator Murphy.
Senator Blumenthal, welcome.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you, Madam Chair, and Ranking
Member Burr. I am so deeply honored and excited and proud to be
here today to introduce Dr. Miguel Cardona, President Biden's
nominee for Secretary of Education. Indeed, it is one of the
proudest and most exciting of my days in the U.S. Senate.
I have known Dr. Cardona and his family for many years,
watched him rise. His rise has been indeed meteoric. It is the
stuff of legend, almost mythical, except it is based on real
hard work and solid values gained from his parents. As he told
me just moments ago, when one member of his family does well,
all do well. And I think that kind of ethic is one he will
bring to his job as Secretary of Education.
He is a proud son of Meriden, Connecticut, a proud son of
our public education in Meriden, of higher education, public
education in Connecticut, two institutions of higher learning--
Central Connecticut State University and the University of
Connecticut--and he is a passionate advocate of English as an
English language learner.
His entire career is living proof that there are no limits
to what anyone can achieve, regardless of what their language
is as a first language. And I am absolutely certain that he
will be as distinguished a Secretary of Education as he was an
assistant superintendent, as well as a fourth grade teacher,
commissioner of education. We are going to miss him in
Connecticut for all the reasons that he will add such value and
be so extraordinarily distinguished and committed to learning
and teaching.
The main point I think about Dr. Cardona is in fact that he
is dedicated with every fiber of his being to learning and
teaching, and he will be a staunch and steadfast advocate and
leader.
He will be an advocate for disadvantaged students, who are
in danger of being left behind in this pandemic.
He will be an advocate for teachers, who are stressed and
strained during this time as never before, who are such great
public servants, along with school administrators, in gaining
new opportunity for the next generation.
He will be an advocate for parents who are concerned and
overwhelmed managing their children's schooling, as well as
their own work, and their families.
Most important, he will be an advocate for students--
students at every level, including students who are drowning in
student debt that has left their financial futures crippled and
deter their gaining access to better jobs and futures.
He is a proven leader. He knows how to listen. And he also
knows the importance of students returning to school, but doing
it safely, and the critical importance of making sure that
vaccines are widely available, putting vaccines into the arms
of more people, and putting students and teachers back in the
classroom are priorities that we can all share, and doing it
safely.
Finally, let me just say that he is a leader of courage and
conviction. He will restore integrity and professionalism at
the top levels of the Department of Education, and he will do
it with a caring and compassion, as well as a toughness of mind
and a clear-eyed courage that have characterized his career
beginning from his days as a student and going through to his
serving as Commissioner of Education. Connecticut is solidly
behind him, and I think that we will miss him, but I am sure
that Connecticut's pride will be mirrored by his accomplishment
as Secretary of Education.
I want to thank the Chairman and you, Ranking Member, for
this honor and opportunity to introduce him today, and to share
the pride that his wife, Marissa, his two children, who are
here watching, and I am sure his parents, as well, feel for his
tremendous accomplishments in this role.
Thank you very, very much.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you, Senator Blumenthal.
Senator Murphy.
Senator Murphy. Thank you, Madam Chair, thank you, Ranking
Member Burr, for giving us the opportunity to introduce our
friend, Miguel Cardona.
If you are from Meriden, you know the Cardona family. The
Cardona family are in some ways a typical and in some ways an
extraordinary American family--a family that eats, sleeps, and
breathes to make its community better. And while today the
whole Country is learning about Miguel Cardona, it frankly is
his gregarious police officer father with his trademark
handlebar mustache, Hector, who often draws the most attention
in Meriden.
I cannot remember exactly where I first met Miguel, but I
am going to guess it was at the city's Puerto Rican festival.
Connecticut has one of the largest, proudest Puerto Rican
communities in America, and Meriden is home to thousands of
families. But, its cultural festival had hit hard times. There
were years where there were only a couple hundred people
showing up, until the Cardona family took the festival over.
Each summer, now, you can find Miguel and his family
speeding around the festival in their golf carts, organizing
children's activities, checking on vendors, organizing bus
transportation. Now, 8,000 people a year come to Meriden to
this festival because Miguel and his family not only care about
their community, but because they are willing to do something
about it.
It will not surprise you to learn why Miguel's professional
career has been this rocket ship ride that has been referred
to, advancing so quickly from classroom teacher, to principal,
to assistant superintendent, to state commissioner, to this
nomination.
At Israel Putnam Elementary, Miguel, on a starting
teacher's salary, fished $450 out of his pocket to make sure
that his kids had the supplies they needed. He was relentless
in teaching his students to refuse to let socioeconomic
obstacles block their dreams and their progress. And, so, it
was no surprise that he was named the state's youngest school
principal a few short years after he started teaching.
As principal, it also will not surprise you to know that he
was one of those principals that knew every kid's name, knew
every kid's story. He dressed up as a conductor for Polar
Express Day. He performed with his students at holiday
concerts, and he relentlessly built a community of teachers,
students, and parents. He led by example.
The promotions kept coming. He tackled teacher diversity as
assistant superintendent in Meriden. He championed the cause of
replacing draconian exclusionary school discipline policies
with restorative justice practices. And, as has been mentioned,
as our state's commissioner, he led the effort to reopen
Connecticut's schools earlier than most people thought was
possible, and he did it in a way that did not divide teachers
from students and parents.
Miguel Cardona keeps getting asked to do bigger things for
a reason. He has a servant's heart, an immovable moral compass,
a refusal to take no for an answer, and a unique talent for
consensus building, something that will be essential in this
job. He is going to make a great Secretary of Education, and I
am so glad to join Senator Blumenthal in expressing
Connecticut's pride and support for him today.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you, Senator Murphy.
Dr. Cardona, welcome. Thank you so much for being here
today. We are looking forward now to hearing from you, so you
can begin your testimony. Thank you.
STATEMENT OF HON. MIGUEL CARDONA, MERIDEN, CT
Dr. Cardona. Madam Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr,
distinguished Members of the Committee, it is an honor to
appear before you today as the President's nominee to serve as
Secretary of Education.
Thank you, Senator Blumenthal and Senator Murphy, for your
kind words and support.
Soy Miguel Cardona, husband of Marissa, and proud father of
Miguel, Junior and Celine. Son of Hector and Sarah Cardona, and
brother to Hector, Junior and Marisol. Their role in my life
has shaped my preparation for today, today's hearing, as much
as any degree or professional experience I have had. While the
pandemic has prevented them from--all of them from joining me
in the room today, I carry their presence in every word I
speak.
We are here today in the midst of one of the most
challenging school years in American history. For far too many
of our students, this year has piled on crisis after crisis. As
a parent and as an educator, I have lived those challenges
alongside millions of families. The burden on educators and
families has been tremendous, taking a toll on the mental
health and well-being of our children, our parents, our
educators, and staff. Fewer students started college this fall,
and those declines were most striking at community colleges,
institutions that have long served as entry points to higher
education and economic mobility for so many.
Our Nation's educational challenges did not begin with the
pandemic, but it has exacerbated inequities in our educational
system. These inequities will endure, and they will prevent the
potential of this Country, unless tackled head on. And it is
so--and, so, it is our responsibility, and it would be my
greatest privilege, if confirmed, to forge opportunity out of
this crisis.
As Americans, we have always risen to the challenge to
solve problems and create a brighter future for our students.
This was true for my family when my parents--my grandparents,
Aveline and Maria Cardona, and Germana Muniz, traveled from the
beautiful city of Aguada, Puerto Rico to find new opportunities
in the Silver city of Meriden, Connecticut.
It was true when my parents, Hector and Sarah, taught me to
dream big and to aim high. Their own hard work empowered me to
expand my horizons and become the first in my family to
graduate college. While we did not always have a lot of
material possessions, I was born rich. This perseverance turned
into gratitude when I became a teacher, a principal, a district
leader in the very same community that gave me so much as a
child.
For me, education opened doors. That is the power and the
promise of America, but it is not a promise kept for every
student. If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed, I will work
tirelessly to make sure our education system is a door to
opportunity, a great equalizer for every student.
We will work to reopen schools safely so that students can
return to classrooms.
We will remove silos in education, sharing our
breakthroughs and successes throughout our Country, and
cultivating schools and colleges as places of innovation.
We will make sure that when students graduate from high
school, they have college and career pathways to good futures.
We will make sure--we will make college accessible to every
student who seeks opportunity through education, including
strengthening this Nation's best-kept secret--community
colleges.
We will ensure that dedicated teachers, paraeducators,
principals, superintendents, and committed higher education
faculty are recognized for their great contribution to this
Country.
We will boldly address educational inequities head on and
hold ourselves accountable for providing equitable outcomes
from pre-kindergarten through college and into adult learning.
Investing in public education changes lives and it saves
lives. I have seen it and I have lived it. And I know our
challenges ahead are problems that we can overcome together.
As a saying in Spanish goes, En la union esta la fuerza. In
unity, there is strength. We gain strength from joining
together. And, like our schools, we gain strength when we
create a culture of community.
That is why, if confirmed, I look forward to sitting at the
table with the vast, diverse community of people who have a
stake in education--students, parents, teachers, caregivers,
advocates, and state, local, and tribal leaders, and the
dedicated career staff at the Department. Their voices matter.
I can think of no higher calling than working to build a
better, more equal future for the next generation. I have the
same dreams for all of the students in our Country as I do for
my own Angelito and Celine.
I am grateful for the chance to take on this
responsibility, and I am grateful for your time today. I am
grateful to President Biden and Vice President Harris for
placing their trust in me.
In closing, as your nominee, I am first a husband of a
family school liaison, a father of two public high schoolers,
an educator, and most importantly, a student advocate.
If confirmed, I look forward to getting to work on behalf
of all students and working with you to build a future of
promise and opportunity for the next generation.
Thank you, and I look forward to answering any questions
you may have.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Cardona follows:]
prepared statement of miguel cardona
Madam Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, distinguished Members of
the Committee:
It's an honor to appear before you today as the President's nominee
to serve as Secretary of Education.
Soy Miguel Cardona, husband of Marissa and proud father of Miguel
Jr. and Celine. Son of Hector and Sarah Cardona, and brother to Hector
Jr and Marisol. Their role in my life has shaped my preparation for
today's hearing as much as any degree or professional experience I've
had. While the pandemic prevented all of them joining me in the room
today, I carry their presence in every word I speak.
We're here today in the midst of one of the most challenging school
years in American history. For far too many of our students, this year
has piled on crisis after crisis. As a parent, and as an educator, I
have lived those challenges alongside millions of families.
The burden on educators and families has been tremendous: taking a
toll on the mental health and well-being of our children, parents,
educators, and staff. Fewer students started college this fall, and
those declines were most striking at community colleges--institutions
that have long served as entry points to higher education and economic
mobility for so many.
Our nation's education challenges didn't begin with the pandemic,
but it has exacerbated inequities in our educational system.
These inequities will endure, and prevent the potential of this
great country, unless tackled head-on. And so it is our responsibility,
and it would be my greatest privilege, if confirmed, to forge
opportunity out of this crisis.
As Americans, we have always risen to the challenge to solve
problems and create a brighter future for our children. This was true
for my family, when my grandparents Avelino, Maria, and Germana
travelled from Aguada, Puerto Rico to find new opportunities in the
Silver city of Meriden, Connecticut.
It was true when my parents, Hector and Sara Cardona, taught me to
dream big and aim high. Their own hard work empowered me to expand my
horizons and become the first in my family to graduate college. While
we didn't always have a lot of material possessions, I was born rich.
This perseverance turned into gratitude when I became a teacher,
principal, and district leader in the very same community that gave me
so much as a child.
For me, education opened doors. That is the power and promise of
America--but it is not a promise kept for every student.
If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed, I will work tirelessly to
make sure our education system is a door to opportunity, a great
equalizer, for every American:
We will work to reopen schools safely, so that
students can return to classrooms.
We will remove silos in education, sharing our
breakthroughs and successes throughout our country, and
cultivating schools and colleges as places of innovation.
We will make sure that when students graduate from
high school, they have college and career pathways to good
futures.
We will make college accessible to every student who
seeks opportunity through education, including strengthening
this Nation's best-kept secret: community colleges.
We will ensure the dedicated teachers, paraeducators,
principals, superintendents, and committed higher education
faculty are recognized for their contribution to this country.
We will boldly address educational inequities head-on
and hold ourselves accountable for providing equitable outcomes
from pre-kindergarten through college and into adult learning.
Investing in public education changes lives and saves lives. I've
seen it. I've lived it. And I know that our challenges ahead are
problems we can overcome together.
There is a saying in Spanish: En la union esta la fuerza. In unity
there is strength.
We gain strength from joining together.
Like our schools, we gain strength when we create a culture of
community. That is why, if confirmed, I look forward to sitting at the
table with the vast, diverse community of people who have a stake in
education--students, parents, teachers, caregivers, advocates, and
state, local, tribal leaders and the dedicated career staff at the
department. Their voices matter!
I can think of no higher calling than working to build a better,
more equal future for the next generation. I have the same dreams for
all students in our country as I do for my own Angelito and Celine.
I am grateful for the chance to take on this responsibility. I'm
grateful for your time today. I'm grateful to President Biden and Vice
President Harris for placing their trust in me.
In closing: As your nominee, I am first a husband of a family
school liaison, a father of two public high schoolers, an educator, and
most importantly, a student advocate.
If confirmed, I look forward to getting to work on behalf of all
students--and working with you to build a future of promise and
opportunity for the next generation.
Thank you, and I look forward to answering any questions you may
have.
______
The Chair pro tempore. Dr. Cardona, thank you very much. We
all appreciate that.
We will now begin a round of 5-minute questions, and I
would just ask my colleagues to keep track of your clock, if
you would. Stay within those 5 minutes so we can respect
everyone's time. And I am very happy to stay if anyone has
additional questions, if we want a second round for anyone.
Dr. Cardona, the COVID-19 pandemic is really having a
profound impact on students. Abrupt school closures, lack of
access to high-quality, remote learning or a conducive learning
environment, educator layoffs, and general chaos and confusion
has really severely disrupted student learning. So, we have a
big job ahead of us to help support our students, our
educators, and our schools respond to and recover from this
pandemic, and that starts with providing schools and colleges
with the resources they need to reopen safely for in-person
learning.
I was pleased to see President Biden's plan call for
significantly more funding. It also demands strong Federal
leadership to accomplish that goal. But, we have a long road
ahead.
Dr. Cardona, as Connecticut's Commissioner of Education,
you have been working every day for the past year to address
the needs of students and their families during this pandemic.
Talk to us about how your experience in Connecticut informs
your work as Secretary of Education in navigating the COVID-19
response.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you for the question, Senator Murray. I
want to acknowledge the fact that, as a Country, we are
experiencing some trauma together. And serving as Commissioner
of Education in Connecticut has provided the opportunity for me
to be in a position to help lead with amazing partners at the
agency and throughout the state in the reopening of our
schools.
Through these last 10 months, I have been able to listen to
parents, students, educators, and we all want to make sure we
can get our students back into schools safely.
Some of the strategies that we took in Connecticut that
were very clear were to make sure that we relied very closely
on the science.
We partnered with our public health experts in the state
and created a system of communication that was regular and
intentional.
We were open and transparent with what we knew, and we made
sure that we partnered with our health experts to put out very
clear guidance early on to make sure that the mitigation
strategies were very clear, to make sure that we talked about
how to safely reopen schools, and how to provide the students
the access to learning if they had to learn remotely. We
partnered together.
I look forward to, if I am fortunate enough to serve as
Secretary of Education, to bring that same mentality of
partnership and clear communication to help recover our public
education and reopen our schools.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you very much. One of my
greatest concerns about the pandemic's impact on students is
learning loss, particularly for students who face systemic
barriers, including students of color, students from families
with low incomes, LGBTQIA students, students with disabilities,
and English learners. And the pandemic has really further
widened the achievement gaps in this Country.
Dr. Cardona, if you are confirmed as secretary, how would
you support states and school districts in identifying and
addressing learning loss among all students?
Dr. Cardona. Okay, and thank you for that question. This
learning loss is something that we are all grappling with. But,
before I get into that, I want to acknowledge our students have
shown us a level of resilience that I don't think we have ever
seen in history before. Our students have really risen to the
occasion and really adapted in ways that are inspiring to me,
as an educator and as a father.
But, we know that--and especially in many communities that
do not have great resources, students have not had access to
quality learning, or have had interrupted learning. So, we have
to make sure that we identify those practices that we know are
effective at meeting students where they are.
We know that with proper support and funding, we can offer
extended learning opportunities for students, extended summer
school options to help students recover some of that loss. And
we have to make sure that the materials that we put in front of
our students are high-quality materials so that our students
are able to benefit the most from any intervention or access to
learning that they get moving forward.
We need to do this not only by providing strong remote
access and quality materials there, but ensuring that we are
doing everything in our power to safely reopen schools. There
is no substitute for a classroom experience for our students
being in front of their teacher. There is no substitute for
that. So, we have to do everything we can to safely reopen
schools in a manner that gets the students back into their
learning environment.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you very much. I will turn the
questions over to Dr. Burr--or to Senator Burr at this point.
Senator.
Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair. You can call me
Doctor if you would like to.
[Laughter.]
The Chair pro tempore. Sorry.
Senator Burr. Dr. Cardona, again, welcome to you and to
your family.
On January 12, the Fairfax Education Association in
Virginia tweeted at you that schools should not reopen until
all staff and students had received a vaccine. Do you agree
with the Fairfax Education Association on this?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator. I recognize the
frustration and distrust and fear that is out there. And, if
confirmed as Secretary of Education, I will do everything in my
power to make sure that our rollout strategy for reopening
schools includes communication on how to safely reopen schools,
and I think that needs to include increased surveillance
testing for our educators and a prioritization of our educators
for vaccination.
Senator Burr. But, just to be clear, to safely open a
school and to safely keep a school open, it does not require
that 100 percent of the participants be vaccinated to
accomplish that?
Dr. Cardona. We have examples--and I know in Connecticut we
have many examples, but we have great examples throughout our
Country of schools that are able to reopen safely and do so
while following mitigation strategies. While I recognize that
is the case, I do believe that making sure surveillance testing
is something that we focus on as well.
Senator Burr. Thank you. Should teachers be prioritized for
vaccination? And when I use the term teachers, does that
include public and private school teachers together?
Dr. Cardona. I use the term educators. There are so many
members of the school community that contribute to making the
school successful. So, our educators should be prioritized for
vaccination rollout, especially as we work to maintain our
schools open. And we have to keep in mind, also, that reopening
schools is not just about the next month or two. If we want to
keep them reopened, we have to make sure that we are properly
testing our teachers and educators and prioritizing them for
vaccination, keeping an eye on the variants and the different
changes that might take place. I think it is a priority to
provide testing and vaccination for our educators.
Senator Burr. When you use the term educators, you are not
separating between public and private?
Dr. Cardona. All educators.
Senator Burr. All educators.
Dr. Cardona. Yes.
Senator Burr. Thank you. States like Connecticut may want
to pursue testing this year just to have some data to
understand the learning loss problem they have on their hands.
But, due to the validity and reliability issues of conducting
testing remotely and in hybrid situations, testing experts say
that the scores may not even be comparable to scores from
before, or after, COVID-19.
It really does not seem fair to include test scores in
schools' performance accountability measures as required under
the ESSA in state plans. Do you plan to waive the need to
include scores in school accountability for state plans this
year?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you for the question, sir. And I know
that not only COVID testing, but assessments are an issue of
concern and great debate. I speak to you now as a nominee.
Obviously, I have not had any role in any policy development to
this point. I can speak to you from the role of a commissioner.
I know that validity of testing is critically important.
And as a school principal, I remember making sure that
assessment data was looked at only if it was valid and
reliable. With that said, I don't think I am in favor of what
you called earlier a one-size-fits-all if the conditions under
COVID-19 prevent a student from being in school in person. I
don't think we need to be bringing students in just to test
them on a standardized test. I don't think that makes any
sense.
With that said, I do feel, sir, that if we don't assess
where our students are and their level of performance, it is
going to be difficult for us to provide some targeted support
and our resource allocation in the manner that can best support
the closing of the gaps that have been exacerbated due to this
pandemic.
Senator Burr. Do you feel that states should be able to
decide whether they incorporate standardized testing this year
given the circumstances of the pandemic?
Dr. Cardona. I feel that states should not only have an
opportunity to weigh in on how they plan on implementing it and
what is best for their students, but also the accountability
measures and whether or not those assessments should really be
tied into any accountability measures, as well.
Senator Burr. Doctor, I thank you.
Madam Chair, I return the time.
The Chair pro tempore. Alright. Senator Casey.
Senator Casey. Madam Chair, thanks very much. I appreciate
this opportunity to ask Dr. Cardona a question, but I wanted to
start by commending our new Madam Chair, Senator Murray, and
the Ranking Member, Senator Burr, for the way they opened this
hearing today. We are grateful for their words today.
Dr. Cardona, I want to start by commending you for the
achievements in your life to date. I am not sure there are
many, if any, secretaries of education who have served as not
only a fourth grade teacher, but also a principal, as well as
an assistant superintendent, and then finally as education
commissioner. So, you are not only well-qualified, but I think
your story is a great American story of hard work and
sacrifice, and we are grateful that you are willing to put
yourself forward for additional public service.
I want to try to get to two issues. The first will take a
little longer because it is a particular issue that affects
students with disabilities, and the second is a question about
early learning.
But, let me start with the question regarding students with
disabilities and this unique issue. Students with disabilities
face significant barriers to entering and completing post-
secondary education. federally funded research found that
students with learning disabilities attend college at half the
rate of their peers without--who don't have disabilities, and
are less likely to complete their programs.
Two, students, we are told it is about one in four with
learning disabilities inform their colleges that they have a
disability, and many high school students with disabilities and
their parents find the process to secure both accommodations
and services in colleges both difficult and unclear.
I have legislation with Senator Cassidy that would ease the
transition by, among other things, ensuring institutions of
higher education make information about requesting an
accommodation both--transparent for both the prospective
student, as well as current students. And, also, this
legislation would ensure that proof of a disability in K
through 12 education is sufficient to receive accommodations in
higher education settings.
President Biden's education agenda indicated he would
increase funding for post-secondary programs that support
students with disabilities and will direct the Department of
Education to provide guidance to those post-secondary programs.
I guess the two-part question here is, how will you ensure
that students with disabilities have increased access to post-
secondary education? And second, how will you make sure that
those higher education institutions are prepared to support and
provide services to students with disabilities?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you for the question, Senator. I do
acknowledge that, the dream of higher education or the goal of
higher education is one that we have to expand in our Country,
and it is one that I am committed to serving and working with
you and others to learn more about and see how we can, at the
agency, if confirmed, support that work.
Helping students gain access to higher education is a
process that does require coordination and collaboration with
our pre-K-12 systems and our higher education systems. Clarity
and communication and expectations, and really just a culture
of not only looking at these students as students with
disabilities, but looking at them as students with assets,
students with great abilities who have to learn a certain way
or require accommodations. So, I think that cultural shift is a
prerequisite to any technical strategies.
With that said, our agency would be poised to not only look
for best practices across our Country of where they are doing
it right and where they are finding success and sharing those
best practices, but also ensuring that we are looking at how
these universities are--what outcomes they are getting when
serving students with disabilities. Making sure that we are
partnering with them, but also keeping an eye on how our
students with disabilities are faring in these colleges.
Something that I am pretty passionate about, as well, and I
look forward to working with you and others to learn more about
it and see how we can support it. Thank you.
Senator Casey. Thank you very much. And I know I am short
on time, but I will just--maybe I will submit a longer question
for the record. But, the question pertains to early education.
I like to say that if kids learn more now, they are going to
earn more later. I think all the evidence shows that.
I will submit a question regarding expanding access to
early learning, early care and learning, and also about the
coordination between and among Federal Government agencies and
programs. But, now that I am down to 6 seconds, I will leave
that for a written question, or possibly in a second round.
But, I know you have a broad experience in early learning and
we will speak to that a little later.
Thank you, Doctor.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you. I look forward to it.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you, Senator Casey.
We will turn to Senator Collins.
Senator Collins. Thank you, Madam Chair. I look forward to
working with you and Ranking Member Burr this year.
Dr. Cardona, I want to thank you for sharing your inspiring
story with us today. I think it is a perfect role model for so
many children in this Country.
I also appreciate the time that you took to meet with me,
and I want to bring up two issues that we touched on in those
meetings.
There is a lot of focus, and understandably so, in this
Country on low-income children in large, urban schools. But, we
also have a lot of low-income children in rural schools.
Along with former Senator Kent Conrad, I authored the Rural
Education Achievement Program, known as REAP. And in 2015, that
program was reauthorized. It is the only direct Federal support
for small, rural, low-income schools. For example, island
schools off the coast of Maine have used it to buy technology
to connect their students and enrich their learning experience.
This program is really vital, yet last year the Department
announced changes in the formula that was used to determine
eligibility for the REAP Program. The result was that it would
have abruptly eliminated funding for more than 100 rural, low-
income school districts in the State of Maine.
When we talked one on one, I went into more detail about
the devastating impact of this. I am seeking today, as you
testify, your commitment to work with me to resolve the formula
issue so that the rural, low-income students across our
Country--it was not just in Maine that this eligibility
changed, had this effect--will receive the funding that the
REAP Program envisioned.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator, for the question. I
recognize, and through the great conversation I had with you,
the challenges that rural communities face, and I commit to
looking at this very closely, if confirmed, and working with
you and others to learn more about how these issues in rural
communities really need more attention.
I will tell you, during the pandemic, in a small State like
Connecticut, we found that our rural communities were facing
challenges that were different than urban centers, and they
were equally as important. Connectivity was an issue.
Senator Collins. Exactly.
Dr. Cardona. Accessing high-quality content is only
dependent on how well your signal is. So, I recall those
conversations with parents and students and educators in the
rural communities, and I recognize with--after the conversation
with you and others the importance that this has in our
Country, not only with the pandemic, but past the pandemic,
making sure the needs of our students in rural communities are
being met.
I look forward to learning more about it from you and your
colleagues, but also serving to do the best we can at the
agency to make sure we are meeting the needs of those learners,
as well.
Senator Collins. Thank you. The second issue I want to
bring up has to do with the TRIO programs, which I am a big
supporter of, which help first-generation, disadvantaged
students pursue higher education. And there are many incredibly
dedicated people at the Department of Education. Let me make
that clear.
But, let me tell you what happened a few years ago. The
Department made a very abrupt, bureaucratic decision, really
embodies the worst of bureaucracy, that denied funding to an
Upward Bound program in my state on the basis of a formatting
problem in the application. And this was a spacing problem.
Instead of being double spaced in a particular graph, it was
one and a half spaces--that is how minor--and the University of
Maine at Presque Isle was not given an opportunity to correct
this.
Well, the result of this would have been that more than 900
students would have been denied access to the Upward Bound
program over a 5-year program of the grant.
I worked with other Senators. We--Senator Murray was one
who also signed the letter. Senator Tester. There were many
Senators on both sides of the aisle. We sent three letters to
the Department saying, this is ridiculous. This is not--the
format is not dictated by law. This is arbitrary. In the case
of Maine's application, it was in a graph that was included in
a 65-page application, and yet it was not even reviewed for the
merits.
Well, the Department only changed course after I added
language to the appropriations bill. It should not have taken
legislative language in an appropriations bill to get the
Department to prioritize the needs of disadvantaged students
participating in the Upward Bound program over bureaucratic
formatting errors.
I would just ask, again, for your commitment to make sure
that we take a more commonsense approach and always remember
that the students come first.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator. I commit not only to a
strong partnership and ability to work with you, and I also
want to commit, if confirmed, that our agency will be a service
agency, making sure that our students' needs are at the
forefront.
Senator Collins. Thank you.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you, Senator Collins.
Senator Warren.
Senator Warren. Thank you, Madam Chair. And, Dr. Cardona,
congratulations on your nomination.
You were a first-generation college student, and for you
and for me, an affordable college education opened a million
doors. But, today, students face a very different situation, so
I want to talk with you today about student debt.
I know you know these facts, but I think it helps everyone
if we could just talk about them for a few minutes. So, about
43 million people--that is one in five adults in America--have
Federal student loan debt. Is that right?
Dr. Cardona. That is right.
Senator Warren. Good. And this debt adds up to more than
about a trillion and a half dollars. Now, about 40 percent of
the people with student loan debt do not have a college degree.
Can you just say a word about what that means for them?
Dr. Cardona. Well, what it means is that because they don't
have the college degree, maybe they don't have the income
potential that they would have had if they had the degree, and
paying these bills will be a larger task and probably a longer
process.
Senator Warren. [Inaudible]--debt.
[Pause]
Senator Warren. Dr. Cardona?
Dr. Cardona. Yes. Can you hear me?
[Pause]
Dr. Cardona. I said that students that are not able to
graduate and probably would have their income affected because
they were not able to graduate and get the income potential,
earning potential, that they would have had if they did. And
they are probably in greater debt, and it may be more of a
challenge to pay off their debt.
[Pause]
The Chair pro tempore. We may have lost Senator Warren. Is
she--did we lose her video?
[Pause]
Senator Burr. Patty, I think we did lose Senator Warren.
The Chair pro tempore. Okay. I believe we have lost Senator
Warren. We will try and get back to you when you--is she there?
Senator Warren.
Senator Warren. I am here.
The Chair pro tempore. Okay.
Senator Warren. I am here.
The Chair pro tempore. We lost you for a minute. Go ahead.
[Pause]
The Chair pro tempore. Okay. We seem--we seem to be having
connection problems with Senator Warren. Let's see if we can
fix that, and we will move to Senator Paul and then go back to
her. Okay.
Senator Paul. The Office of Civil Rights sent a letter to
Connecticut saying that boys cannot compete with girls in
sports, or they should not be forced to allow boys to compete
in girls' sports. If you are confirmed, will you enforce that
Office of Civil Rights opinion?
Dr. Cardona. Hello, Senator. Thank you for the question. I
understand that there are a lot of concerns about that. It is--
if confirmed, it is my responsibility and my privilege to make
sure that we are following civil rights of all students, and
that includes activities that they may engage in high school or
in athletics.
Senator Paul. What do you think in general about boys
running in girls' track meets like they have been doing in
Connecticut?
Dr. Cardona. I think that it is critically important that
educated--education systems and educators respect the rights of
all students, including students who are transgender, and that
they are afforded the opportunities that every other student
has to participate in extracurricular activities.
Senator Paul. Does it bother you that like the top 20
percent of boys running in track meets beat all of the girls in
the state, and that it, would be-- completely destroy girls'
athletics, the girls are being pushed out, they don't make the
finals in the state meet, they don't get college scholarships,
that it is really detrimental to girls' sports? Do you worry
about having boys run in girls' track meets?
Dr. Cardona. I recognize and appreciate the concerns and
the frustrations that are expressed. I, as Commissioner of
Education, have had conversations with families who have felt
the way you just described it, and families of students who are
transgender. So, I understand that this is a challenge. I look
forward to working with you and others to----
Senator Paul. Do you think----
Dr. Cardona [continuing]. Communicate----
Senator Paul [continuing]. It is fair to have boys running
in the girls' track meet?
Dr. Cardona. I think it is appropriate for--I think it is
the legal responsibility of schools to provide opportunities
for students to participate in activities, and this includes
students who are transgender.
Senator Paul. You don't have a problem then with boys
running in the girls' track meets, swimming meets, you name it?
You are okay then with boys competing with girls?
Dr. Cardona. Respectfully, Senator, I think I answered the
question. I believe schools should offer the opportunity for
students to engage in extracurricular activities, even if they
are transgender. I think that is their right.
Senator Paul. Alright. Well, a lot of us think that is
bizarre, not very fair. I come from a family that has a lot of
girls who have been--have competed in college athletics, have
been state champions. And frankly, some boy that is six foot
two competing against my five foot four niece does not sound
very fair. I think most people in the Country think it is
bizarre. It is just completely bizarre and unfair that people--
--
You are going to run the Department of Education and you
have got no problem with it. That concerns me. And I think it
is this kind of thing that is going to lead to really just the
vast majority of America just wondering who are these people
that think it is okay? From what planet are you from? I mean,
to think it is okay that boys would compete with girls in a
track meet, that somehow would be fair. I wonder where
feminists are on this. I wonder where the people who supported
women's sports are on this. I mean, are we all going to be okay
with hulking, six-foot-four guys, wrestling against girls to--
it just makes no sense whatsoever.
I think the fact that you seem to be afraid to answer the
question, or you basically do answer the question by saying it
is okay without saying it is okay, really is a statement to a
real problem we have and a disconnect between what middle
America and what most Americans actually believe. I even think
most Democrats don't believe girls should run in a boys' track
meet, boys should run in a girls' track meet.
I am disappointed in the answer and I just cannot imagine
that we are going to have a policy like that nationally.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you.
Senator Murphy, you are next.
Senator Murphy. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Again,
congratulations, Dr. Cardona. Thank you for your willingness to
serve.
Just a word on the topic that Senator Burr raised about
assessments. I am a believer in assessments. I think it is
really hard to figure out how to target resources if you don't
know how your kids are performing. Admittedly, much tougher to
do assessments right now, and there is probably a worthwhile
conversation about how you tie assessments to accountability
measures.
But, on a bipartisan basis, we have approved hundreds of
billions of dollars to send to states and municipalities. We
want to make sure that money is spent well, and having a sense
of what kids are succeeding and what kids are not is just, I
think, a proper exercise of responsible taxpayer dollar
management. And, so, I just add that to the conversation.
Dr. Cardona, I want to talk about sort of two issues unique
to Meriden, Connecticut that I think are great to highlight for
the Country. One is the work that you have done there to reduce
suspensions and expulsions, and the next is the work that
Meriden has done to promote a truly diverse community, racially
diverse and economically diverse, and to talk about the benefit
that is provided to students by going to school in a diverse
environment.
First, I am a believer that the Federal Government should
move more quickly to try to reduce the school-to-prison
pipeline; that we should be encouraging states to use less
exclusionary discipline, meaning kicking kids out of school as
a means to try to make schools safer.
What have you done in--you led this effort in Meriden. What
did you do to reduce the use of suspensions and expulsions in a
way that frankly ended up making your schools safer places?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator. Yes. It is hard to learn
if you are being excluded from the learning environment, so
efforts to reduce exclusionary practices were critical to our
work in Meriden and at the state level. And, to do this, you
have to really engage students as partners in the process.
Engaging student voice and giving students an opportunity to
communicate their experience, and how their learning is best
and what struggles they are having in their learning
environment is critically important.
You mentioned restorative practices. Making sure that when
issues arise in our schools that we are looking at it as a
learning opportunity for our students and trying to bring a
stronger sense of community as a result. So, restorative
practices was something that we did in Meriden.
But, also monitoring. I know you talked about
accountability and monitoring. If--we are not going to improve
it if we are not monitoring it, if we are not looking at our
data disaggregated by race, by socioeconomic status, by free
and reduced lunch, by students with disabilities. We have to be
open and honest about what we are doing and what the results
are, and are they different for different students, and then we
have to be honest about building capacity for our educators,
for our schools, and for our systems to make sure that we are
addressing it intentionally.
Senator Murphy. One of the things that you will be
immediately presented with is an executive order around school
discipline policies that included a lot of incentives for data
collection. And I hope you will take a hard look at re-
implementing all or part of that Obama year executive order, in
part because it does get to this question of making sure that
we are watching what happens. What we know is that it tends to
be students of color and students of disability that end up
getting excluded from school more so than their White or non-
disabled peers.
Lastly, I just wanted to ask you to talk about the benefit
of Meriden's diverse student community. I have legislation that
would set up a Federal grant to support voluntary school
integration programs, racial integration programs and economic
integration programs.
I have always been struck in visiting Meriden how the kids
themselves are so conscious of the benefit they get from going
to middle schools and high schools where they have economic and
racial diversity. And, in fact, I have talked to lots of kids
who moved from less diverse communities, either all-White
communities or communities with almost exclusively students of
color, and they themselves just had their eyes opened. So, why
is that important to Meriden's success?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator. So, I am a big believer in
not only curriculum providing a window into other cultures or a
mirror into your own culture where you can see yourself, but I
also believe the environment. Having a diverse environment is a
better environment. Diverse perspectives, diverse backgrounds.
There is a level of celebration of differences, which, if
we can get our students to graduate school with a celebration
of differences, they are going to be much more successful in
the global economy that we are in.
It is definitely a benefit, and it is something that in my
home community, I have benefited from, and my children, too, as
well.
Senator Murphy. Well, I will look forward to, working with
you on ways that we can allow the Federal Government to be a
facilitator of those conversations. These are ultimately
decisions that get made at the local level about how to
approach this question of desegregation, integration, but it is
a conversation that the Federal Government can play a more
helpful role, and I look forward to working with you on that.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you.
Senator Cassidy.
Senator Cassidy. Hey, Dr. Cardona. Nice to see you again.
Thank you. Can you hear me? I think you can.
Dr. Cardona. I can. Hello, Senator.
Senator Cassidy. Listen, we had a great conversation and,
as I expressed to you, I have a real interest in dyslexia. The
gurus on this, if you will, are from Yale Medical School, so
kind of a home state for you, the Dr. and Dr. Sally and Bennett
Shaywitz.
It is clear that you can diagnose dyslexia in kindergarten
and first grade; that one in five children are dyslexic--the
best data shows that--and yet, we are not diagnosing that many
children. And you and I discussed how poverty, and you
mentioned English as a second language, can be used as an
excuse to explain a child's lack of reading ability when
perhaps they are dyslexic and require the specific intervention
to address their dyslexia to keep them from falling down.
Right now, I am just reviewing our conversation that you
and I had for those who are listening to kind of set the stage
for this.
Again, I have been so concerned that poverty can be used as
an excuse to deny a child the appropriate intervention. Can you
give me your thoughts on that? And could you commit to helping
to address that?
Dr. Cardona. Sure. Thank you, Senator, for the question. I
appreciate--I appreciate our conversation we had last month and
the passion with which you bring these issues forward.
I could call it the iBendito effect. The iBentido effect is
having lower expectations because--that because a kid came from
a tough environment, or maybe there was disruption in learning,
that does not necessarily mean it is a learning disability.
I agree with you that making sure we are screening
adequately and providing the right interventions is critically
important in our educational system. And I look forward to
working with you and others to make sure that we have the right
balance of screening and making sure that we are not assuming
that students that come with a specific demographic background
are thought of as having a special need, a special need for
learning, or an issue that prevents them from learning.
Senator Cassidy. What would be your position on universal
screening for dyslexia in kindergarten or first grade, knowing
that the data shows that it can be detected then with the
appropriate screening instrument?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you. Yes. I am a big proponent of
ensuring that we have adequate tools in our classrooms and that
our teachers are equipped with the right tools and training to
make sure that they can see where students' needs are and what
might be something that requires a little bit further diagnosis
or assessment.
I think making sure that we have a really robust pre-K
through three system that gives teachers the tools to assess
students not only for dyslexia, but for other--other needs that
students might have in their ability to learn to read. Because
we know those years are pretty critical. So, I am in favor of
better screening tools for our educators to have to help
support our students.
Senator Cassidy. Now, let me ask about high-stakes testing.
If you are a child with dyslexia with a reading-intensive,
high-stakes test, you are going to--it is testing for your
weaknesses, not testing for your strengths. And that is just
intuitive, and I am stealing this from the Shaywitzes, who are
at Yale, so--but they have taught me so much about this topic.
My concern is that if you have--and the best schools in the
private sector put dyslexics in a single area, classroom,
breakout session or whatever, and they give them the
specialized curriculum that is needed for dyslexics, but that
would be not so beneficial for non-dyslexics. So, it focuses
the attention, the resources, where it is needed, but does not
diffuse it over all.
But, if you have that child in that concentration of such
students and you are testing to their weakness where you have
high-stakes tests, they are inevitably going to do poorly
because, one, they have been selected for being poor readers,
and then you are giving them a reader-intensive test. And, now,
ideally, you are not going--you are going student by student on
their improvement, not a class by class without looking at the
individuals' improvement. Any thoughts on that as my time
closes out?
Dr. Cardona. Sure. Again, thank you for the question and
the nuanced approach you took to this.
A couple thoughts. No. 1, it is critically important
whenever you are assessing a student you have multiple
measures. So, I agree with you 100 percent. You cannot base
everything on one test. You really have to have multiple
measures. And, as you said, some assessments are very reading-
intensive, but sometimes that is not the best picture of the
whole child.
Second, I agree with you that focusing intervention for
children with dyslexia will require a specific set of skills.
It is--for me, my opinion, the best way to do that is to ensure
that we have the proper training and we are clear on what
strategies work well for those students, and make sure that we
have our schools able to do those services for our students.
Thank you, Senator, and I look forward to working more with
you and hearing more about how we can support students with
dyslexia, and all students with disabilities moving forward, if
confirmed.
Senator Cassidy. I appreciate that. And I will close by
saying that our Every Child Succeeds Act, which I have,
supported, nonetheless gives minimal latitude for a district or
a state to do that individual, okay, you have dyslexia, so we
are going to judge you differently. In fact, it puts the state
in a straightjacket when it comes to assessing their progress.
So, I do look forward to working with you on that and with my
colleagues on the Committee.
With that, I yield back, Madam Chair.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you, Senator Cassidy.
Senator Baldwin.
Senator Baldwin. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you, Dr. Cardona, for joining us today and for your
decades of service to the students and families in Connecticut
and your willingness to continue that service by serving as
Secretary of the Department of Education. I look forward to
your swift confirmation and working with you to help address
the many challenges that our Nation's students, parents,
educators, and administrators face.
Certainly, chief among those challenges right now is our
Nation's recovery from this global pandemic and the associated
economic downturn. During our last recession, America's
community colleges played a real critical role in helping folks
acquire new skills and get connected to well-paying, high-
quality jobs in in-demand industries. Then and now, career and
technical education programs in our Nation's community and
technical colleges help unemployed Americans get back to work,
and CTE programs in middle school and high school can set
students on a path to well-paying jobs.
I am a co-chair of the Senate bipartisan CTE Caucus, and I
am always looking for ways to advance career and technical
education. One way to do so is by making community and
technical college affordable and accessible to more and more
students of all ages and backgrounds. My America's College
Promise Act would do just that by making two years of education
at these institutions tuition-free.
Dr. Cardona, do you agree that strengthening career and
technical education can help our Nation's recovery? And if so,
if confirmed, how do you plan to support these programs both
through community colleges and in middle and high schools?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator, for the question. I
absolutely agree that career and technical education and
pathways are critical in our recovery, but I also agree that
our community colleges are going to be a major part of our
recovery as a Country in education, and they play a very
important role.
I will explain how best I can move forward with this by
sharing with you that, as Commissioner of Education, I had the
wonderful experience of working with Superintendent Craig
Drezek, who oversaw programming that allowed our high school
students to get access to college-level courses in a community
college and get credit for that, and create a pathway for them
to think about career opportunities when they graduate the two-
year college.
Then, what I have learned in my experience--not only in
Connecticut but throughout the Country I see this happening--is
if we can really start thinking about how we are providing
opportunities for our middle and high school students to be
exposed to the jobs of today, and pathways that include maybe a
two-year college or a career technical education, or advanced
manufacturing, computer science training, and get into the
workforce, they are more likely to want to go back and get that
four-year degree in something that they are passionate about.
I do think it starts early into middle school, drives up
through high school. But, we have to design our high schools to
be able to provide those pathways for our students to be
successful, whether they go to a four-year traditional pathway
or to a pathway that involves a career and technical education
training.
Senator Baldwin. Thank you. In his first day in office,
President Biden issued an executive order directing all Federal
agencies to review their regulations, guidance, and other
policies in light of this summer's decision by the U.S. Supreme
Court finding that discrimination on the basis of sex under
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is properly understood to
also forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation and
gender identity.
Dr. Cardona, I urge you to make that review one of your
first orders of business if confirmed because it is critically
important that all students have a safe environment, free from
discrimination and harassment, in which to learn. LGBTQ
students in particular remain vulnerable, and I was deeply
disappointed by a number of actions that the Department took
under the leadership of Former Secretary DeVos that put these
students at further risk.
As secretary, how do you plan to change the tone set by
your predecessor and communicate the Department's support for
LGBTQ students?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you for the question, and again, for the
passion. I feel it is non-negotiable to make sure that our
learning environments are places that are free of
discrimination and harassment for all learners, including our
LGBTQ students. And, not only will we review these carefully,
we will also be in discussion with the folks at the agency and
our partners out in the field, who have very strong
perspectives on this, to learn more and make sure that we are
doing everything to make sure that our learning environments
are safe for students not only physically, but also where they
can go there free of harassment or discrimination.
Senator Baldwin. Thank you.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you, Senator Baldwin.
We will turn to Senator Murkowski.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Dr. Cardona, thank you for the opportunity to visit with
you by phone last week. I appreciated our conversation, and I
loved the story about how you integrated the Iditarod into your
curriculum at that point in time. To have someone who has been
at all levels working with kids, working with administrators, I
think is a very unique perspective that you bring, too, to the
position for which you have been nominated.
Now, when I mention Iditarod, I know that through working
with your students and in your classroom, that we have got a
very, very rural state. And, with rural states, we have some
very small schools, and there are challenges that come with
that. It comes with teacher recruitment and retention, but it
also comes with funding issues and certain disparities that can
come about through use of formula or competitive grant-type
funds.
The Department's Office of Rural Outreach we think is a
pretty good communications tool for the Department, but it
really lacks any policy leverage, as I understand it. It is
more along the lines of the Department is looking at programs,
seeking to move forward with action, but then there is kind of
a, oh, how is this going to work for our rural schools? How is
this going to work for our smaller schools? So, more of a--it
is kind of an afterthought rather than being part of the
central discussion.
I would like your input here in terms of what more we can
do to ensure that our rural schools, our smaller schools, are
not kind of the afterthought. And that when it comes to access
for funding for these rural school districts, some are too
small to really get many dollars from a formula grant, and then
they don't have the capacity to apply and win a competitive
grant. So, they are really stuck in this bind here.
Your views, and what more can be done with a focus on our
rural schools?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you for the question, Senator Murkowski,
and I, too, enjoyed the conversations and having the
conversation about the Iditarod and someone that really knows
it more than I did. It was really awesome.
Senator Murkowski. I have invited you up. I would love to
show you around.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you. You brought up the issue of rural
schools and rural communities, as did Senator Collins, and it
really gives me--it made me think about what I experienced.
When thinking about developing curriculum at the district or at
the state level, I have often felt that ELLs were an
afterthought in the development of curriculum; and that the
needs of English learners was not really at the table at times
when thinking about how are we going to meet the needs of all
learners.
Similarly, I feel the same way about rural communities;
that, as you mention, they should not be an afterthought; that
there has to be a seat at the table to make sure that when
their needs are being--that their needs are being considered
when we are talking about grants, when we are talking about
competitive grants, or making sure we are meeting the needs of
learners who are oftentimes marginalized or not given the
attention that they should be given.
What I commit to is ensuring that rural needs have a seat
at the table, or representatives of students that are in rural
communities have a seat at the table. Because your needs in
those communities are unique, and unless we think about them
when we are thinking about how to support students at the
beginning, it will probably not get the attention that it
needs.
I commit to that in terms of fund distribution, but also
learning more. I am very much interested in learning more about
how the challenges in our rural communities are preventing
students from gaining access to classes that they want or
having access to a quality education during the pandemic.
These are issues that are important to me, and I look
forward to working with you and others to learn more about it,
to make sure that they have a seat at the table, and that, as
we plan forward, if confirmed, that the perspective of our
rural students is also taken into account.
Senator Murkowski. Well, I appreciate your focus on that. I
think we have learned from this pandemic not only where health
disparities exist throughout the Country, but certainly where
our educational disparities exist. Because if you are not able
to access broadband, if you do not have that----
Dr. Cardona. Right.
Senator Murkowski [continuing]. Internet, you do not have
education.
I was going to ask you a question about statewide
assessments. I understand that you have answered that now
twice, so I will look to your responses.
But, I am very concerned about some of these students who
have been without not only the in-person instruction, but also
the benefits that technology has brought to other students
across the Country during this time of COVID and the disparity
that existed prior to, and unfortunately will probably be
exacerbated. So, I look forward to working with you.
Thank you, Mister--Madam Chairman.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you, Senator Murkowski.
Senator Kaine.
Senator Kaine. Thank you, Madam Chair, and to Ranking
Member Burr. I am excited about continuing to work with this
Committee under great leadership.
I want to thank and congratulate Dr. Cardona for your----
Dr. Cardona. Thank you.
Senator Kaine [continuing]. Nomination. I think you are
going to make an excellent Secretary of Education.
My dad ran a welding shop in the stockyards of Kansas City,
ironworking and welding shop, and he was management. He was the
owner. My two brothers and I and my mom worked in that business
for years. The core of the business were these anywhere from
five to seven ironworkers, union ironworkers, who made that
business a success. And my dad always attributed much of the
success to them, just as they attributed the success to his
business acumen.
Years later, I ran a school in Honduras that taught kids to
be welders and carpenters. When I got into public life as a
city councilman in 1994, I was completely convinced of the
power of high-quality career and technical education, but I
started to discover in so many of our policies an inequity
about the way we treat career and technical education. It was
not emphasized in K-12. Sometimes it was used in the bad old
days to track students whose folks didn't think had much
potential.
At the Federal level, we have policy after policy that
treats career and technical education different than higher ed.
So, say there is a family and a couple of parents who are--make
an income that would qualify them for Pell Grants, and they
have two kids, and one wants to go to college. Well, it is an
entitlement for that kid. If he wants to go to college, there
is a Pell Grant that is available for that child.
Say the second child wants to be a welder, wants to be an
EMT, wants to do something that would be a high-quality,
intense career and technical program that does not happen on a
college campus and is not the length of a college semester.
That child cannot get a Pell Grant.
The child who wants to go to college basically gets an
entitlement, but for the child who wants to pursue high-quality
career and technical education, well, we give WIOA funds to a
Governor, and the Governor can decide how it gets allocated.
So, hopefully there is a program somewhere near where this
youngster is and hopefully there is room for this youngster,
but there is no guarantee of it.
I have made it my passion since I came here in 2013, and
certainly since I have been on the Committee, to try to
eliminate root and branch, root and branch, the second-class
status that we so often assign to career and technical
education, and I know you have focused a lot on this in
Connecticut.
In Virginia, we have had a program called FastForward,
where we fund our community colleges to do high-quality career
and tech, not the length of a semester. Because of that, the
students cannot get Pell Grants for it, but we have been able
to fund it at the state level. What we have found is the
students do great. They are a little different than average.
They tend to be about 35 years old. They are more likely to be
minority students. But, what we have shown is that their
earnings increase when they get credentials by about $8,000
annually, and they are more likely to get jobs with benefits.
I would like you to tell me that, should you be confirmed,
you completely get that career pathways for high-quality career
and tech are something that we should be valuing and respecting
and supporting at--in Federal policy.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator, for the question. I
wholeheartedly agree with that. I am a proud graduate of Wilcox
Technical High School, where I studied automotive. And I had
the opportunity to go into that field if I wanted to, or go
into college, and I chose to go to college. I wanted to be a
fine arts teacher, and then I was drawn to elementary
education.
But, the point is that you are absolutely right. We need to
really evolve our thinking to say college and career
opportunities should exist in the comprehensive high schools
that provide pathways, clear pathways, to options for students
in the fields that, right now, there are great, high-paying
jobs that are going unfilled because we are not as aligned as
we need to be.
I am big supporter of that.
Senator Kaine. Excellent.
Dr. Cardona. There is a running joke in Connecticut,
welders who code have it made. So, if you are a welder and you
know how to code, you can program a machine, you are going to
be pretty good.
Senator Kaine. Dr. Cardona, I have a very bipartisan bill
with Senator Portman called the JOBS Act that would allow Pell
to be used for high-quality career and tech. I would love to
work with you on it.
Just a suggestion. There have been questions about COVID
and testing and how we should grapple with that question. I
hope what we might do is continue to use testing to identify
challenges and learning gaps, but maybe because of COVID,
adjust the accountability sanctions on schools and things like
that might not be appropriate, and I hope you will consider
that.
Last question. How much would it help states and schools if
the Federal Government, instead of funding the IDEA at about 13
percent of costs, would actually do what we said we would do
when we passed it and fund 40 percent of the cost? How much
would that help our schools in states like Connecticut and
everywhere else?
Dr. Cardona. It would be a game changer for public
education and for our students with disabilities, and for all
of our school communities.
Senator Kaine. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam Chair.
[Pause]
Senator Scott. Thank you, Madam Chair Murray, and thank you
for holding this hearing.
Dr. Cardona, thank you for being willing to serve as our
education secretary. Without any question--I am reading about
your life story. It just reminds me of the goodness of America
and that all things are truly possible in the greatest Nation
on the earth. Your story models that reality, and I am so
excited to have a conversation with you about making sure that
education is the foundation for the next generation of success
stories.
As you and Senator Kaine were just having a very--really
important conversation about tech schools and two-year
education, I want to just put a plug in there for shop. You may
not be old enough to remember when we had shop in high schools,
but it is really an important part of the apparatus that makes
success possible. And, as you have already alluded to, that you
can have a high quality of life, and there is dignity in all
work, and shop is a really important part of that.
I come at this issue as a poor kid growing up in a single-
parent household and believe that education is the closest
thing to magic. And the more we focus on education, K through
12, the more likely we are to have success stories in every
community in this Country, and that is exactly what we are
striving to do.
I will say that without question, and unfortunately, it has
become more and more clear to me that partisan politics and
special interest groups sometimes finds its way in front of
kids and education. And I will say that, even in the pandemic,
we saw relief bills that wanted to empower Governors to make
the best decisions that they could for their kids blocked by my
friends on the other side of the aisle. That, to me, just does
not make a lot of sense, and it certainly does not make for
improvements in educational outcomes for the poorest kids,
oftentimes stuck in rural America or inner-city America. They
both share the same burden of lacking quality education in too
many of those zip codes.
Frankly, one of the things that is most alarming, Dr.
Cardona, is that many of our public schools remain closed. And
we know that the learning loss that happens over the summertime
in normal circumstances and situations slows down the learning
progress for so many kids. So, imagine 18 months outside the
classroom. That will be devastating for the learning loss for
too many kids.
But, at the exact same time, as we celebrate Catholic
School Week, we note that there are over five million students
today in private schools, and many of those schools are open
today. One point seven million low-income families send their
kids to open, private and Catholic schools.
That should be the case today. The CDC has said basically
the same thing, that it is really important to get our kids
back in school, and that is something we should prioritize as a
Country. And private school education that is available for the
elites in Washington, the elites around the Country, and if you
don't send your kid to a private school, you can send your
school--your kid to the best public school by simply moving
into the right district. That is not the case for too many poor
kids in rural America, and is certainly not the case for too
many kids in inner-city America.
As a matter of fact, when you think about the promise of
high-quality education, and frankly private school education,
you have to look right at our current president, President
Biden, and his kids, former President Obama and his kids, House
Democrat Whip, Jim Clyburn, at Speaker Pelosi, Senator Casey,
Senator Kaine, House Ed and Labor Chairman, Bobby Scott. All
benefited from private schools and Catholic Schools.
I have got to assume that my colleagues on the other side
of the aisle work in good faith, but it does, to me, smack of a
little hypocrisy, hypocritical that those folks were allowed to
avail themselves and their kids to private school education.
And too often, those same policymakers seem to make it hard for
the poorest Americans to find the path to take care of their
kids and the highest possible education path, and that is just
not available for too many kids and too many of their families.
I hope, Dr. Cardona, that you will take some time and
perhaps articulate your position on things like the bipartisan
D.C. Opportunity Scholarship that helps kids enter into charter
schools and get a quality education, where the graduation rate
is nearly double that of every other public school in the D.C.
market. So, I would love to hear your comments on charter
schools and maintaining the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator, for your passion and your
comments and your question.
I recognize there are excellent examples of charter
schools. I have seen many in Connecticut. Stanford Charter
comes to mind. I know there are also phenomenal examples of
neighborhood schools that are doing just as great work and are
giving all students----
Senator Scott. Absolutely.
Dr. Cardona [continuing]. An opportunity to succeed. And my
passion really is to ensure quality schools, period. Making
sure that we are not supporting a system of winners and losers
where, if you get into a school, you have an opportunity for
success, but if you don't get into a school, your options lead
to at least a belief that you cannot make it.
For me, I am a strong proponent of making sure all schools
are quality schools, investing in our neighborhood schools to
make sure that they are quality schools where parents want to
send their children. We know most parents want to send their
children to their neighborhood school, so it is really
important that we support all schools, including those
neighborhood schools that are usually the first choice for
families in that community.
Senator Scott. I know that I am out of time, so I will just
say this, Dr. Cardona. Thank you for your answer. Thank you for
being clear. I certainly share the objective of making sure
that every child in every zip code has a quality choice.
Unfortunately, for poorer kids and minority kids and rural
kids, that is not always the case, and I want to make sure that
we make that playing field as level for them as conceivably
possibly.
Thank you, and thank you for your little extra time, Madam
Chair Murray.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you so much, Senator Scott.
Can you hear me in the hearing room now?
Senator Burr. Yes, we can, Patty.
The Chair pro tempore. Okay. Great. I will turn to Senator
Hassan.
Senator Hassan. Well, thank you, Madam Chair Murray and
Ranking Member Burr. I really look forward to working with both
of you in this new Congress.
Thank you, Dr. Cardona, for being here today, and
congratulations to you and your entire family----
Dr. Cardona. Thank you.
Senator Hassan [continuing]. For your nomination, because
this kind of service is truly a family affair.
Dr. Cardona. Yes, it is. Thank you.
Senator Hassan. Before I start my questions, I would ask
the Madam Chair if I could please have unanimous consent to
enter this letter from a coalition of 54 organizations working
to protect students and taxpayers with stronger consumer
protections in higher education into the record.
[Pause]
Senator Hassan. Is that without objection, Madam Chair?
Senator Burr. Without objection, .
Senator Hassan. Thank you.
The Chair pro tempore. So ordered.
Senator Hassan. Thank you. Dr. Cardona, as our Nation
continues to grapple with unprecedented disruptions to our
education systems, I look forward to hearing from you on how we
can best meet the needs of our students now and going forward.
Before I get to my questions, I also just want to echo
Senator Collins' comments and some of Senator Murkowski's, too,
on the importance of supporting rural schools and working
collaboratively to fix the formula to ensure that schools are
able to continue to access needed funding through the Rural and
Low-Income School Program. And I look forward to working with
you on that.
I wanted to turn to the issue of COVID-19 education
funding. As we have discussed today, schools need additional
funding to help address COVID-19, especially in order to help
more schools reopen for in-person learning. Several of my
colleagues have raised concerns about the level of funding in
President Biden's COVID-19 relief proposal. What specifically
do you anticipate schools using that additional funding for? Do
you know how the Administration determined what amount was
needed? And what do you see as the consequences if Congress
fails to act on education funding for COVID relief?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you for the question. You know, as a
nominee, I am not involved in the policy development, but I do
recognize that in the development of this, different
stakeholders were at the table talking about what impacts it
would have as they developed this.
I can tell you that as Commissioner of Education in
Connecticut, the funding--and we are appreciative of the
funding--has really helped us keep the lights on, make sure we
have PPE, make sure we have schools that are safe and clean,
better ventilation. We have custodial support making sure that
our buildings are clean. I wouldn't want it any other way if my
wife and children are going to those schools.
However, the funding that is being considered now, moving
forward, is really to make sure we recover. We have--we are
experiencing--we are in the middle of a pandemic, and our
learners, the social, emotional development of--the needs of
the counselors are greater.
Many of our students have lost loved ones, have been
through trauma in terms of their families losing their jobs. So
much change has happened. We are going to need more counselors
in our schools.
We are going to make--need to make sure we have summer
programming.
We are going to need to make sure we have extended days.
If we really want to recover, we really need to invest now
or we are going to pay later. And I feel that the funds that
are being discussed now are really to help us with the long-
term recovery process, preventing layoffs when we need more
teachers, not less.
Senator Hassan. Thank you. I now want to turn to the issue
of career pathways, which you and I discussed a little bit when
we met earlier, and the importance of engaging adult learners.
And it also goes to some of what Doctor--Senator Kaine was
talking about in terms of the JOBS Act.
Last week, I reintroduced the Gateways to Careers Act for
Senator Young, Senators Kaine, and Collins. This is a
bipartisan bill that would support career pathways programs
where students can make an income while they earn educational
credentials. The bill also includes important wraparound
supports for learners who face barriers to completion, like to
help access affordable housing and cover transportation costs.
Do you agree that it is important to support these kinds of
programs? And can you share some of your thoughts on how we can
better serve adult learners who have struggled to engage with
traditional education opportunities?
Dr. Cardona. Right. Thank you for the question. I do think
it is important. Pell Grants now pay for maybe a quarter of the
expenses in state colleges. I think in 1975, 1976, the same
amount paid for about three-quarters of the costs.
Senator Hassan. Right.
Dr. Cardona. It is much more difficult to access higher
education now for our learners, our students.
Clear pathways that start earlier to give our pre-K-12
system students an opportunity to see what opportunities may
exist, whether it is CTE or college-track courses, maybe having
more courses at the high school level where students can be
dual enrolled and really feel like they are a college student.
My son, who has just recently enrolled in a course through
his high school with the community college. That was a pretty
proud moment as a father to know that he is taking a college
course as a junior, and that he is having a head start.
That should not be the exception. There should be
opportunities for all students to do those types of things. And
I think with careful coordination, it should be something that
we should be doing much more across our Country.
Senator Hassan. Well, I look forward to working with you on
that.
Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield the time.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you very much.
Senator Romney.
Senator Romney. Thank you very much, Madam Chair and
Ranking Member Burr. And thank you, Dr. Cardona, for being with
us today. I appreciated the chance that we had to chat
yesterday and appreciated your answers to that point.
I want to associate myself with a number of the things that
were said by Senator Paul. That is not something I say very
frequently, but he made a very, very good point. I have got
pictures of my eight granddaughters among some grandsons behind
me. They should not be competing with people who are
physiologically in an entirely different category. And I think
boys should be competing with boys and girls should be
competing with girls on the athletic field.
I am going to turn instead to the stimulus program that the
President has proposed. In December, we added funding for K
through 12. Sixty-seven billion dollars was added to what was
previously put in the CARES Act. A total of $67 billion between
the two, rather, and now the President is proposing that we add
130 billion on top of that.
In looking at the areas that are proposed, he is proposing
that we hire 10 percent more teachers in America. Now, we have
about 3.5 million educators in the Country, so this would be
some 350,000 additional educators, and he is proposing that we
build new classrooms for these teachers.
I don't presume that it is your plan or their plan to fire
these teachers after COVID is over. Is that right?
Dr. Cardona. Correct, Senator.
Senator Romney. Well, so then we are basically permanently
adding 350,000 teachers and building a lot more classrooms. So,
I presume this is associated with saying that the smaller
classroom size is going to get better education for our kids.
But, I have not seen any unbiased studies, other than from the
teachers' union, that suggest that smaller classroom size
correlates in any way to student performance, obviously within
some normal parameters.
But, as you look at the NAEP exams, for instance, to
compare the various states, the states at the very top have the
same size classrooms that the states--as the states at the very
bottom. Is that correct? Do you understand that the same way I
do?
Dr. Cardona. I am sorry. I did not understand the--I did
not hear the last part of the question.
Senator Romney. I am sorry. I guess our connection today is
not doing real well.
I am just pointing out that based upon the National
Assessment of Student Performance, it shows that states at the
very top of performance compared to those at the very bottom
performance have about the same size classroom size. So, just
adding more classrooms does not seem to correlate with better
student performance. Is that your perception, also?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you for the question, Senator. So, the
question about classroom size, I think there are numerous
studies over time that have shown that, classroom size is not
necessarily the most important indicator. However, as a former
teacher, a principal, and in my experience as an educator, I
can tell you, when I have 15 students in front of me versus 28
students in front of me, I am able to give more specialized
attention to those 15 students.
I think, in the NAEP studies that you reference, there are
other factors that it would be unfair to compare those to
because it could be that in the communities that have greater
class size, they also have additional resources that maybe the
others do not.
Senator Romney. I would tend to look at studies that were
done, for instance, by the McKinsey Institute that looks at
performance of students around the world and the impact of
classroom size.
I note when I served as Governor of Massachusetts, we
compared 152 different school districts based on classroom size
and student performance and there was no relationship
whatsoever. The key is making sure we hire the best teachers.
Starting wages for teachers I think is at--or salaries for
teachers, absolutely critical.
I would strongly encourage you to look at the $170 billion
the Administration is proposing to add to K through 12 for
COVID relief and suggest that we put in place things that will
really make a difference, like giving all of our kids access to
electronics, computers, iPads, and so forth, broadband
capacity. These things, I think, will have a far greater
impact. I would underscore that I am concerned that the funding
that we are describing is something which the teachers union is
very happy to receive, but which will not result in actual
improvement in the scores and the performance of our young
people.
I would also like to associate myself with the comments
that have been made with regards to technical education that
Senator Kaine indicated, and Senator Hassan. I think it is
critical that we level the playing field and we encourage young
people to get a technical education if that is where their
orientation is, and that we support them in every way we
possibly can. Thank you, Doctor. Good to be with you.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator. I look forward to working
with you, if confirmed, and learning more with you and your
colleagues to make sure we are doing everything we can for all
of our students. Thank you.
Senator Romney. Thank you.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you very much. And I
understand Senator Warren, who got cutoff earlier, is in the
room.
Senator Warren, if you want to finish your time.
Senator Warren. Thank you very much. Thank you, Madam
Chair, and thank you, Dr. Cardona.
I am reminded by this how difficult it is right now for our
students and for our teachers, who are having to deal with
technical glitches that interrupt their education every day,
and why this package is so important to get the resources into
our schools, so we can get those schools opened for learning
for all of our kids in person. So, thank you.
When you and I were interrupted by technical problems, we
were talking about the fact that you are a first-generation
college student, and that the opportunities that were available
to go to college without debt a generation ago are just not
there now.
We were talking about the 43 million Americans who are
struggling with student loan debt--about $1.5 trillion in
student loan debt. And, at least when I lost you in this
process, you were starting to talk about what it means that 40
percent of those who are dealing with student loan debt do not
have a college diploma. So, what does that mean in terms of the
impact of student loan debt on their lives?
Dr. Cardona. It is a significant impact. I think 1.2
million default every year. And what we do know is if you did
not graduate and did not get your degree, your earning
potential is not what it would be if you did. So, I think what
it does is exacerbate issues for those who are unable to pay.
Senator Warren. Yes. And can you say a word about how
student loan debt is impacting Black and Latino students?
Dr. Cardona. It is disproportionately affecting them more.
I recently read that for Black students who graduate, 12 years
later, they are still paying more than they were starting with
when they started--when they took the loan out because of the
interest. So, 12 years after starting the loan, they are--they
owe more.
Senator Warren. Yes.
Dr. Cardona. That is exacerbating gaps. That is
perpetuating, the haves and the have-nots.
Senator Warren. A deep hole that keeps getting deeper.
Here is something that may come as a surprise to many
Americans. Student loan debt is one of the biggest contributors
to rising debt loads by seniors. There are older Americans who
are still paying off student loan debt in their 60's, in their
70's, even in their 80's. In fact, tens of thousands of
Americans have had their Social Security checks garnished for
student loan debt.
In other words, the impact is felt everywhere. And even
before this economic crisis, before this pandemic, the economic
effects of student loan debt were holding back our economy.
Dr. Cardona, this is a crisis. You are in a unique position
to be able to do something about it. Congress gave the
Department of Education tools to help borrowers with student
loan debt. Let me ask you, will you commit to doing everything
you can to use those tools to provide borrowers with immediate
relief?
Dr. Cardona. Yes, Senator.
Senator Warren. Good. And one of those tools is overseeing
the office of Federal Student Aid. Under your predecessor,
Betsy DeVos, that office was on the side of greedy student loan
servicers instead of borrowers. Will you commit to developing a
plan to reform FSA so that it works for student borrowers
instead of for big corporations?
Dr. Cardona. Yes, Senator.
Senator Warren. Good. I really appreciate those
commitments. They can make an enormous difference in the lives
of millions of people across this Country.
One route that I am going to continue to urge you to take
is administrative cancellation of student loan debt. The law on
this is clear. Congress gave the power to the Secretary of
Education, and the past two secretaries--and yes, that includes
Betsy DeVos--used it. So, if confirmed, that tool will be
waiting on your desk when you are sworn in, and that is
tremendous power to help.
As you know, Majority Leader Schumer and I have outlined
how you and President Biden can immediately cancel $50,000 in
student loan debt, and I look forward to working with you to
provide the relief that our students need.
Thank you so much for agreeing to serve.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator.
Senator Warren. Thank you.
[Pause]
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you, Senator.
We will turn to Senator Braun.
Senator Braun. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Just a little over a week ago, we had a robust
conversation--I think it went 35, 40 minutes--and some of the
stuff that we talked about then has already been covered. I am
going to jump right to the question nobody ever seems to ask
around here. And I know that in building a business and being
on a school board for 10 years that I was in my hometown from
'04 to '14, being a state legislator on the education
committee, it was the idea of cost, how do you pay for things.
Higher education, after you get through high school, when
you are out there trying to pursue that pathway of CTE or a
four-year degree, has sadly eclipsed in terms of costs going
up. Healthcare, the other thing that I have probably been
loudest about of any Senator, that we need to reform a broken
system.
You and I spoke about Mitch Daniels, what he did at Purdue.
I don't know if you had a chance to look into that any. But, he
has frozen tuition now I think for 8, 9 years. In a place like
this that runs trillion-dollar structural deficits, when so
many people look to the Federal Government to get help, what
are your thoughts on how we do better at getting better value
out of post-secondary education and how are you going to weigh
in on it? What did you learn maybe from Mitch Daniels?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you for the question. And, I did have an
opportunity to see how cost-saving measures were done at Purdue
and, I think my response to that is we need to do that as a
Nation. We need to really look at exemplars and lift them up to
say this is another way to protect students, then debt; and
making sure that we are keeping college costs down; making sure
that universities and colleges are using everything at their
disposal to make the experience of the learner one that they
can afford and that they are not going to be paying for the
rest of their lives, so they can move on to buy a home, start a
family, and do the things that they need to do after.
To answer your question, I would want to make sure that
programs like that are elevated, communicated, and that the
agency can provide a platform through which we--the left hand
learns from the right hand, right? Unfortunately, there are a
lot of pockets of excellence across our Country that people
don't know about. So, you mentioning it gave me the opportunity
to look into it.
But, I think we need to have a more structured system where
we are learning from one another and we are keeping students at
the center of the conversation, making sure that college
efficiency is one of those topics. And making sure that the
return on investment is there for our higher education
learners.
Senator Braun. I am glad to see that you have that point of
view because currently, on anything we do here, we borrow about
23 percent of what we spend. And I think for most parents,
stakeholders across the Country, good health and good
education, and sadly those are the two most costly parts of our
economy and society.
It was talked about earlier--Senator Scott, choice. Indiana
has led the way on school choice. I come from a school
district, public school district, one of the best in the state.
Back when I was a school board member, a Catholic high school
tried to get started in our hometown. No demand for it, even
though the faith-based part had interest in it, but the public
school systems were so good. At a neighboring county, who lost
one of its three grade schools, the smallest of the three, the
best performing, due to bad management within that district.
I would like you to be a little more distinct in what you
are going to do in terms of promoting competition and choice,
because I think you generally said, I want all schools to do
well.
Dr. Cardona. Sure. So, I went to a technical high school,
so I had choice when I went to high school. I could have gone
to a traditional, comprehensive high school. I chose a
technical high school. And I think that is healthy, and I think
families should have that, students should have that.
What I referred to earlier, and I feel pretty strongly
about, is that our public schools cannot be a poor alternative,
that--our neighborhood schools--not public schools, because
there are charters that are public also. But, our neighborhood
schools need to be schools where we want to send our children,
and we have to make sure that it is not that they are
alternative, or the least-desired alternative, but that it is a
high-quality alternative for students to attend their
neighborhood schools.
I feel pretty strongly about that. I think it--I am pretty
clear that public education, public schools in our
neighborhoods, need to be developed. That is the bedrock of our
Country. That is the--that is where the majority of our
students attend, and we have to make sure that it is a high-
quality school for all kids.
Senator Braun. Very briefly, the third topic we covered,
which has been covered by three or four other Senators, CTE
pathway. I know in building my own business, we do not need
more applicants with four-year degrees. We fill those spots
with more applicants that we can really even talk to.
Dr. Cardona. Right.
Senator Braun. It is that easy to do. Indiana exports I
think twice as many four-year degrees as we keep in state.
When it comes to that, a tip that might be pursued is--I
don't think it will cost anything. But, when I looked into it,
even in my own county, we were stigmatizing that pathway.
Guidance counselors are that first point where parents and
students get to talk to someone. Probably needs to be a little
more emphasis on high-wage, high-demand jobs in that pathway by
just changing the paradigm and the point of view, and I don't
think that would cost hardly anything. That would just be a
pulpit from which you can say a lot about.
Dr. Cardona. Absolutely. I wholeheartedly agree, Senator.
And, if confirmed, I look forward to--this is exciting work. I
am fortunate to have been a part of a Governor's Workforce
Council in Connecticut where we brought in our business
partners, higher education institutions and our K-12--pre-K-12
institutions together to say, let's get this right. Let's work
together to get this right, to make sure that these pathways
are communicated early in our schools and they are viable
options for career and great livelihood for our students. So, I
am really eager to get into that work, if confirmed, and I look
forward to working with you in Indiana and hearing more about
the great programs there and making sure that we are sharing
those best practices across the Country. Thank you.
Senator Braun. Thank you.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you very much.
Senator Smith.
Senator Smith. Thank you very much, Madam Chair Murray. And
congratulations to--it is wonderful to say Madam Chair Murray
and also Ranking Member Burr. I am really excited to work with
all of you on this Committee this year.
Congratulations, Dr. Cardona. I am so--I have to say, at a
time when there is a lot of things going on that are not going
great, it is so exciting for me to hear your commitment and
your energy and enthusiasm for this really, hard work ahead.
And I think that your experience as a classroom educator, as
well as a principal and an administrator, is exactly the kind
of experience that we need in this role right now, so I am just
super excited to hear about this.
I think that in this moment, parents and students and
educators are all just overwhelmed. The sense of responsibility
and accountability and challenge in this moment is really
palpable. I see this all the time in Minnesota, and I can see
from the conversations with my colleagues in this Committee
today that we are all experiencing that. And I think it is one
of the reasons why you are getting asked great questions about
where we go from here.
You can see a lot of us on both sides of the aisle have
great interest in career and technical education--shop, as
Senator Scott is calling it--where we can really broaden our
ideas about how students can build core to great careers and
great jobs and great lives beyond a four-year education, and I
certainly agree with that.
But I want to ask you about something in particular that
is--you and I had a chance to talk with--talk about a little
bit when we were together. I so enjoyed our conversation. As we
think about how in this Country we can continue the work of
fulfilling the promise that our Country holds for everyone in
this Country, I am thinking a lot about Minnesotans and
Americans who are new Americans, who are immigrants. And I know
that in my state, diversity in culture and language is not just
something that we see in Minneapolis and St. Paul and the big
cities. It is something that we see in regional centers, like
Wilmar and Worthington and Fairmont. We have about 74,000
students in Minnesota that do not speak English as their first
language. I think it is five million in America.
Certainly, learning English as a second or third language
is complicated work and is challenging, but I think so much
about what an opportunity this is and how much this adds to our
classrooms and our schools and the experiences of all children.
Could you just speak for a little bit--I know you have
given this a lot of thought. Could you talk some about how we
should support English language learners and immigrant students
and what you have seen that works and how we could build on
that as we go forward?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you for the question, Senator. I
wholeheartedly agree that not only should we be, encouraging
having more than one language, bilingualism, but also, we
should be acknowledging not only bilingualism, but
biculturalism. I think, they go together and that we honor our
students' bilingualism by also honoring their culture. And I
truly enjoyed the conversation I had with you about this.
As a classroom teacher and as a principal, moving along the
lines, when you are able to do that, you build community in
your schools, No. 1, because they feel more engaged.
But, in terms of the language development piece, research
is pretty clear on how you learn a language, a second language.
And unfortunately, in many cases, what we have done is we have
subtracted L-1 to replace it with L-2, and then later we offer
a prestigious elective of the same language that the student
came with as a high school elective. So, we really have to
rethink how we are doing this and understand the value and
benefit of not only being bilingual in this Country, but being
bicultural and your ability to work globally if you can do
that.
Senator Smith. Yes. Well, as I think you were saying when
we spoke, language is culture, and too often we think of
students that need to learn English as--their first language,
if it is not English, is a barrier that they have to overcome
rather than an asset that they have for themselves, but also,
as you are indicating, an asset for the entire classroom as all
the kids can learn from one another about their different
languages and their different cultures. So, I just could not
agree with you more, and I think that is going to be something
that is going to be exciting to work on as we move forward.
I don't have much time left, but I want to just also
acknowledge, Dr. Cardona, that we--we had also a really great
conversation about the importance of addressing mental health
issues in classrooms--this is mental health issues among
students--even if they are not in classrooms right now. I think
this is also overwhelming, and I look forward to the work that
we can do together on this.
This is also a bipartisan issue, I think. Senator Murkowski
and I have worked together on this issue, along with others.
So, lots of work ahead there, as well, and good work.
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you very much.
We will turn to Senator Marshall. Welcome to our Committee.
Senator Marshall. Well, Madam Chair, thank you so much and
it is an honor to be here with you today. And Ranking Member
Burr, thank you for the invitation to come. Dr. Cardona,
welcome.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you.
Senator Marshall. You and I have so much in common. We are
both first-generation college kids that went on to pursue and
obtain doctorate's degrees. Community colleges seem to be
something of interest to you. My wife and myself, both
community college graduates. And, then, I think last, how
important family is to you, that we are part of a loving family
that has supported us, whose education was a priority. And, as
I think about success of students, what makes up--what makes a
student successful, and loving parents and good educators are
always a good--a great key and a great indicator, and I
appreciate your commitment to those.
I want to go back to community colleges for a second. I am
so proud of my community colleges across the State of Kansas.
The Perkins Grants, TRIO Grants, are several opportunities, as
well. And my dream is that not only would seniors in high
school, but juniors and sophomores would start getting a little
bit of college credit. And, by the way, how do you drive the
cost of college down, and one of it is getting some of those
credits back in high school and maybe finishing in 4 years. And
if you cannot--if you have to borrow money to go to a
university, maybe you should think about a community college.
Just give you a second to expand on your vision for
community colleges.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, and I appreciate the question and
the statements you made earlier.
Community colleges are critically important to not only
rebuilding after the pandemic, but really just our plan forward
in education. And I think they serve the community. I mean, it
is in the name. And what we need to do more is make those
programs more available or more accessible, earlier, for our
learners so that they can look--for first-generation college
students in particular, who might think about college and think
early on, oh, that is not for me, I cannot afford it. We need
to really remove those barriers, those mental barriers, that
may exist generationally and really give them access to that.
But, community colleges can also provide opportunities for
students to explore pathways that they might not have
considered in the past.
Good coordination with pre-K-12 systems and community
college systems are going to be really important to make
college accessible to more students.
Senator Marshall. Great. Thank you. And, moving onto the
next subject, one of the top concerns for Americans right now--
maybe No. 1 for many, many families--is getting our children
back in school. I want to talk about that for a second.
As an obstetrician, I took care of many women with viruses.
And if I learned one thing about viruses, they constantly
change, and how people react to them is different, and
especially pregnant women. Whether it is chicken pox or West
Nile Virus, we--each pregnant woman will react differently.
People talk about following the science, and the science is
constantly changing with this virus because the virus is
changing. And the location you are in is so important, whether
you are on a Gulf Coast State or in the State of Connecticut or
the plains of Kansas, this virus is acting differently.
As you tried to get your schools opened, and it sounded
like you had some success with that, what was the secret
potion? Was it one-size-fits-all or was it empowering people in
their own communities to be successful? As I have seen the
rollout of the COVID challenges, whether it is giving
vaccinations now, or before, getting PPE or the testing out,
some communities succeeded and some did not. What were your--
how was your--how were you successful?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator, for the question. My
experience as Commissioner of Education in Connecticut around
school reopening was having very clear communication around
which mitigation strategies worked. It was also very clear
partnership with our health and safety experts, who understood
pathology. I know we started looking at the flu and how the flu
spread. Then we learned more about how COVID spread. Making
sure that our decisions and policy decisions and
recommendations are based off of that.
But, as you said earlier, we have some communities with
high schools of 150 students. We have other communities with
high schools of 3,000 students. So, we recognized that our job
was to provide clear guidance on how to open schools safely and
support those districts in order for them to implement those
mitigation strategies and safely reopen.
Senator Marshall. Great. So, you--I think the point here is
you gave them goals, objectives, and guardrails; you did not
micromanage each one of those. And I think as we go forward, I
hope you continue that same philosophy for our Nation,
empowering local school boards and superintendents to make
decisions.
Lastly, I would like to talk about rural America school,
but instead I have to talk about transgender issues. So, that--
that is sad to me. It is sad to me. Some of the highlights of
so many people's growing up are those state track meets, and
it--I just don't think it is American that a genotypical male,
a person with a Y chromosome, is competing against girls that--
--
What I learned from sports, and so important in my
upbringing, what sports taught me, was that there was a level
playing field; that we all had equal opportunity, and that is
not equal. There is nothing American about letting people with
a Y chromosome compete against women.
What are the--what other alternatives are there out there?
I agree with you, you want every person, regardless of some of
those issues, transgender issue, has equal opportunity. Are
there--besides letting genotypical males compete against women,
are there any other alternatives out there?
Dr. Cardona. Without getting into the policy that I have
not been a part of that conversation, I can tell you that the
Supreme Court ruled discrimination based on gender is not--it
is illegal. So, we have to make sure that we are honoring our
students, and we--I recognize this is not easy, and I respect
the perspectives of people that feel differently, and I respect
the fact that you are representing your stakeholders who have
made it very clear to you how they feel.
I commit to working with you and others to making sure that
we can provide opportunities for all students in a non-
discriminatory fashion, but also making sure that we respect
the rights and beliefs of all of our students.
Senator Marshall. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I yield back.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you very much, and we will
turn to Senator Rosen.
Senator Rosen. Thank you, Madam Chair Murray. It is so
wonderful to see you have that gavel today. And our Ranking
Member Burr, I look forward to working with you in your new
capacity, as well.
Dr. Cardona, I agree with my colleagues. Today, I want to
just thank you for being here with us, for your commitment to
serving our Nation, our families, our students, and their
entire selves in that perspective, particularly now with COVID.
I really did appreciate the productive meeting that we had. I
look forward to hear more about your plans to expand access to
high-quality education, break down barriers for girls, for
students of color, support our Nation's amazing teachers,
educators reopen our classrooms in a safe way, that we have to
do that based on available science, and the incredible strain
that COVID has placed on all of us.
We really have to deal with that, so I urge this Committee
to facilitate a swift confirmation so Mr. Cardona can get right
to work.
But, I would like to talk a little bit about STEM and CTE.
As we discussed in our meeting, one of my top priorities in
Congress is supporting STEM education and the STEM workforce.
My Building Blocks of STEM Act, which was signed into law last
year, expands the National Science Foundation programs to
increase the participation of girls in computer science. I am
glad this new law was funded in the last omnibus, but there is
so much work, more work, to be done, particularly in breaking
down barriers that stand in the way of students of all ages
from pursuing STEM careers from all backgrounds. And, so, in
Nevada, those barriers are really difficult, and we need to
establish those career and technical apprenticeships and grow
our teachers who are certified to teach this.
Dr. Cardona, what changes can the Department of Education
implement under your leadership to help remove these barriers,
increase the access to STEM so we can just get all these
students ready to participate in the workforce? There is,
hundreds of thousands of jobs available right now in the cyber
tech field. And, so, how do we go about doing that?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator, for the question. I agree
that the fields of STEM are just growing. There is greater
need, and the better we can provide guidance and exemplars of
where STEM courses and content is integrated into good quality,
core curriculum, the more likely that we are going to get all
students to have access to it.
I was fortunate to participate in different programs, such
as, Connecticut Girls Who Code Program, and be a part of
efforts to try to increase participation from girls in programs
of STEM. And it is something that we need to do not only as an
agency, but as a Country, to really show that computer science
is a part of so many of the jobs of today and tomorrow; that it
is really important that we make sure that our--all of our
students, including our girls, are getting into that field and
having more exposure to it earlier.
I think that is a big part of everyone's work, and I look
forward to working with you and others, if confirmed, to make
that a reality.
Senator Rosen. I appreciate that. I look forward to that,
too. And I want to build a little bit on what Senator Smith
talked about and mental health of our students. We have been
battling the coronavirus for, well, over a year now, almost a
year. Recent studies have found a dramatic increase in the
anxiety and depression among children, among young adults, and
recent--one recent study found that nearly one-third of
surveyed high school students reported feeling unhappy,
depressed. In most recent months, more than a quarter of those
feel disconnected from their teachers, their classmates, their
school community.
Unfortunately, in Clark County--we talked about this. We
have the fifth largest school district in the Nation. Eighteen
students, 18 students, have taken their lives since March of
last year, and tragically, this is one of the highest numbers
of student suicides in the Nation. It is a list nobody wants to
be on top of. It is absolutely devastating for the families,
for the classmates, for the community. Our school district, we
are partnering with non-profits. We are doing everything we can
for suicide prevention and to get to these kids with pilot
programs.
How can we prioritize mental health for our students as we
try to reopen schools? Our students, our teachers, all those
wraparound services that we may need, particularly now as we
hopefully come out of the pandemic, but during these
challenging times.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you for the question, Senator. I first
share my condolences for those 18 students and their families.
You are absolutely right. If we are not thinking about
reopening our schools with mental health support for our
students at the core of how we are planning, then we are
missing an opportunity. We--even prior to the pandemic, the
mental health needs of our learners, of our students, was
increasing, and a lot of the time that we spent in our schools
was really to support students from an emotional perspective, a
mental health perspective, so that they could be successful
academically.
Let's not lose this opportunity post-pandemic to really
redesign, to make sure that the mental health needs of our
students are first and foremost; that our educators have the
training that they need to meet their needs; and that our
schools serve as the hubs of their community to make sure that
not only do the students feel that they are a part of a
community within the building, but that the school is a bigger
part of their community at large; making sure that they have
the wraparound services and the supports that the families also
need to help their children be successful.
I am pretty passionate about that, and I look forward to
working with you and others, if confirmed, to move this along
in our Country.
Senator Rosen. Thank you very much. I know I have exceeded
my time. I appreciate it. I yield back.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you.
Senator Lujan, welcome to our Committee. Go ahead.
Senator Lujan Truly an honor to be with you today, and I
thank you, Madam Chair Murray, and also Ranking Member Burr for
the opportunity to ask some important questions today. And I do
look forward to working with you and the rest of my colleagues
to not only defeat this pandemic, but expand access to early
childhood education, strengthen public education and
apprenticeship programs, and make post-secondary education and
technical training programs more affordable for millions of
Americans. So, thank you again so much.
Dr. Cardona, I want to thank you, as well, today and
appreciate you being available to testify. I know that your
experience as a public school teacher, principal, and
superintendent has prepared you for this moment. And, I want to
pick up where some of my colleagues have also asked some
questions, specific in the area of children's mental health.
Dr. Cardona, I am very concerned that due to COVID-19 and
disruptions in learning, students are experiencing increased
stress, anxiety, trauma, mental health challenges, as well as
their families. Data shows that over 75 percent of students
receiving mental health care received that care in schools.
I know this is something that you are committed to and you
have talked a lot about. But, can you expand on what can be
done to ensure that students, as well as all of the employees,
the teachers, the folks that keep the schools looking good,
that get the kids to school on time and that prepare that
nutritional food, how they will have access to these important
mental health programs?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you, Senator, for the question. It is
true. It really takes the whole village. And, I am pleased to
see that part of the recovery plan includes funding for
counselors, to make sure that we have the adequate--we have
adequate support for our students and their mental health needs
in order for them to be successful.
Their bandwidth diminishes if they are worried about what
might be happening at home, or what they experienced, so it is
really important that we look at it holistically and make sure
that we are attending to their mental health needs.
You brought up a very good point. The educators that
service and support our learners are also--have also gone
through trauma, and we have to make sure that our institutions
and our agencies are also supporting our educators and making
sure that their mental health is fine so that they can meet the
needs of our learners.
Oftentimes, our educators take on a lot of the stressors
that our students are experiencing, and they--they are trying
to support the students the best they can. It is critically
important as we recover from this pandemic that we look at our
educators' needs, as well, and make sure that we are taking
care of our educators so that they can take care of our
students.
Senator Lujan. Dr. Cardona, one of the reports that I keep
my eye on is the Annie E. Casey Foundation report on child
well-being, looking at what needs to be done to provide support
to kids. I am hoping that there will be a commitment from the
Department of Education--and with your support--that we look at
that report and that we understand it, and that we strive to
make sure that whoever is at the bottom of that list, that we
work to get them higher up, so that the gaps between who is No.
1 and who is number 50 are small. Would you care to comment on
that?
Dr. Cardona. I look forward to reading more about that,
learning more about that, and ensuring, as part of--if I am
fortunate enough to serve as Secretary of Education, that it is
going to be part of every day of my job to make sure that we
are minimizing gaps between highest--the top on the list and
the lowest on the list, and making sure that we are learning
from one another so that we are learning from best practices.
I do look forward to hearing more about that, working with
you and others to learn more about that and make sure that our
agency is aligned to supporting the work that needs to get
done.
Senator Lujan. Thank you, Dr. Cardona. And one thing I
certainly appreciate is you understand how this crisis has
exacerbated longstanding inequities in our education system,
and you have made it a mission to close those equity gaps and
ensure all students have access to high-quality education,
including in high-poverty areas, rural communities, and in
Indian country.
Dr. Cardona, this is an area where I hope that we will
continue to see your leadership shine and make a positive
difference. I do not have a question in that particular area
because I am short on time, but I just wanted to commend you on
the work you have done and look forward to what must be done to
be able to eliminate those gaps in rural and tribal
communities.
Broadband, Dr. Cardona, as you know, is something that is
important to me. I raised this issue with you when we chatted
before. In addition to closing that digital divide and that
homework gap, I am curious if you can share with us how you
plan to work with the FCC in this case. And, in the areas with
tribal schools across America, in New Mexico, we have 22 Bureau
of Indian Education-operated schools, 22 tribally controlled
schools that are under the jurisdiction for the most part of
the Department of Interior.
The question that I have for you is, what can we expect on
how you will collaborate with other Federal agencies to make a
positive difference in these communities?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you for the question, Senator, and I am
glad you brought up the issue of Native American and Indian
education. That is an issue that I want to learn more about and
make sure that our students are receiving a top-quality
education and feel heard. First and foremost, they need to feel
heard. And I look forward to working with other secretaries to
make sure that our interagency support for our students is
first and foremost, and that we are doing everything we can to
work together to make sure that the experiences of our learners
is second to none.
Senator Lujan. Madam Chair, thank you for the time today.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you very much. And that
completes our first round of questions.
Senator Burr, do you have any additional questions?
Senator Burr. Madam Chairman, I have just got some follow-
up things to cover, five questions with Dr. Cardona. They are
yes or no questions. I will be very brief, and I thank you.
Let me say from the beginning, thank you again for being
here today, Dr. Cardona. I think you are imminently qualified
and I look forward to working with the Madam Chair, to
expeditiously----
Dr. Cardona. Thank you.
Senator Burr [continuing]. Get your nomination through. I
would encourage you--I know that Members, as well as myself,
will have questions for the record. If you will answer those
and get them back as fast as you possibly can, that would help
us to process your nomination.
Oversight is an important function of Congress, and
hopefully that can be done in a bipartisan way. But, if not, I
intend to exercise my oversight authority as Ranking Member of
this Committee, just as Senator Murray did as Ranking Member.
Five questions. Do you commit to providing me and my staff
with the information that I and other minority Members of the
Committee request from the Department of Education within the
requested timeframe?
Dr. Cardona. Yes.
Senator Burr. Do you commit to providing me and my staff
with the documents that I or other minority Members request
from the Department of Education within the requested timeline?
Dr. Cardona. Yes.
Senator Burr. Do you commit to providing me and my staff or
other minority Members of the Committee with briefings
requested from you or your staff within the requested
timeframe?
Dr. Cardona. Yes.
Senator Burr. Do you commit to providing the Department of
Education Inspector General and the General Accounting Office
with any information, briefings, and documents they may
request?
Dr. Cardona. Yes.
Senator Burr. Last, do you commit to testify when called
before a Congressional committee?
Dr. Cardona. Yes.
Senator Burr. Doctor, I thank you. I look forward to
processing your nomination.
Madam Chair, I yield back.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you very much, Senator Burr.
Dr. Cardona, I do have an additional question, comment, and
then I will close.
Let me start with my question. We do need to move quickly
to address the critical needs of students in higher education
who are really struggling to meet their basic needs--accessing
food and housing. The pandemic and this resulting economic
crisis has only worsened this situation for a lot of our
students and families. I hear from college students in my state
who are homeless. They are sleeping in their cars. They do not
have money to eat. They cannot buy textbooks. They are
uninsured and cannot afford childcare. And the data proves this
is sadly a very widespread problem, and I just think we need to
bring a whole-of-government approach to helping students meet
basic needs and preventing homelessness and hunger, and those
efforts really are critical to keeping students enrolled in
college and getting their degree.
If confirmed, how would you work to make sure we are
addressing those very basic needs and creating pathways for
students to be successful?
Dr. Cardona. Thank you for that question. And, you really
highlight the reality for so many of our students who are
trying to access the American Dream through college.
The first thing I will do, Senator, is make sure that their
voices are heard and that we understand what they are
experiencing so that we can shape our policies and make sure
that we are advocating and using our positions to provide the
maximum level of support possible for these students.
Also, working with our colleges to help them and support
their efforts to make sure that pathways for these students to
have flexibility in payment and debt relief where possible.
Make sure we maximize those, as well.
It is critically important that, if confirmed, that I do
everything in my power to help these students, these first--in
many cases, first-generation college students access the same
goals that I was able to achieve through higher education. So,
it would be something that I would be honored to do.
The Chair pro tempore. Okay. Very good. Thank you.
Dr. Cardona, before we wrap up, I just have one more thing
I want to say. I was deeply disappointed by the way the Trump
administration failed to defend the right of all of our
students to feel safe and to attend school without being
discriminated against. We have to work together to hold all our
schools, our school districts, and our institutions of higher
education accountable for providing safe environments for all
of our students, and that includes holding them accountable for
preventing and addressing sexual assault.
I have heard from survivors, institutions of higher
education, families, and school districts across the Country
that we have got to do better, and it has to be a key priority
for the Department to change the DeVos Title IX Rule. So, I
want you to know I am going to be looking for quick action on
that.
I also just want to make it very, very clear. I agree with
what Dr. Cardona and Senator Baldwin have said on the
importance of ensuring the rights of every student, including
transgender students, are protected, and I look forward to
working with you to advocate for all students.
With that, that will end our hearing today. I want to thank
the Members--all the Members of this Committee for a very
substantive hearing.
Dr. Cardona, thank you for your thoughtful testimony and
answers. I very much appreciate your willingness to serve our
Nation and to take on this very important assignment.
Dr. Cardona. Thank you. It is my honor.
The Chair pro tempore. Thank you. For any Senators who wish
to ask additional questions of the nominee, questions for the
record will be due by Thursday, February 4, at 5 p.m. The
hearing record will remain open for 10 days for Members who
wish to submit additional materials for the record. It is my
intention to schedule a vote in Committee on Dr. Cardona's
nomination as quickly as possible so we can move his nomination
forward and he can begin the very important work of leading the
Department of Education.
Tomorrow, we will convene in this room at 10 a.m. for a
hearing on the nomination of Mayor Marty Walsh to be Secretary
of Labor.
With that, the Committee stands adjourned.
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
letters of support for the nomination of dr. miguel cardona to serve as
secretary of education
America's Public Television Stations
1225 S. Clark Street, Suite 1425, Arlington, VA
February 3, 2021
Hon. Patty Murray, Madam Chair,
Hon. Richard Burr, Ranking Member,
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
Dear Madam Chair Murray and Ranking Member Burr:
America's Public Television Stations strongly support President
Biden's nomination of Dr. Miguel Cardona as Secretary of Education.
Connecticut Public, the public television and radio network for the
state, has had a highly successful and productive partnership with Dr.
Cardona during his service as Connecticut's Commissioner of Education
and in his earlier tenure as Assistant Superintendent of Schools for
Teaching and Learning in Meriden, CT.
Since early in the pandemic, Connecticut Public has partnered with
Commissioner Cardona in extending remote learning services to thousands
of Connecticut students whose schools were suddenly closed.
America's public television stations do this work everywhere, and
we look forward to being constructive partners with Secretary Cardona
in a nationwide remote learning collaborative, both during the pandemic
and afterward, when the benefits of remote learning will remain
essential components of the ``new normal'' in education, providing
specialized enrichment and remedial instruction, preventing ``summer
learning slide,'' and more.
In addition, public television stations are providing educational
datacasting services in a growing number of states, linking students
without broadband access to the same instructional materials as those
provided to students on the Internet, and helping to bridge the
``digital divide'' that disadvantages millions of students nationwide.
Through our success with Ready To Learn, the pre-school educational
initiative long supported by this Committee, public television stations
have helped millions of young children get ready to learn in school and
succeed in life, and helped narrow the opportunity gap in education
between children from low-income families and their more affluent
peers.
Commissioner Cardona has been supportive of all of these
educational initiatives undertaken by public television stations.
Beyond this potential for partnership, we also find the prospect of
a former teacher and school principal as Secretary of Education
immensely appealing. Dr. Cardona's inspiring life story and career
history qualify him in an exceptional way to work with teachers,
students, parents and other caregivers in improving the quality of
education for all.
America's Public Television Stations enthusiastically recommend Dr.
Cardona's nomination, and we would welcome the opportunity to work with
him and this Committee to devote the resources of public television
even more comprehensively to teaching America's children.
Sincerely,
Patrick Butler,
President & CEO
America's Public Television Stations
______
Every Hour Counts
February 2, 2021
Dear Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee:
I am writing on behalf of the Every Hour Counts network to express
support for Dr. Miguel Cardona, U.S. Secretary of Education nominee,
ahead of his Senate confirmation hearing. Our network is impressed with
Dr. Cardona's experience in education and supporting students; we
wholeheartedly support a swift confirmation.
Every Hour Counts is a national coalition of citywide
intermediaries dedicated to increasing access to high-quality expanded
learning (after-school, summer and expanded in-school learning)
opportunities, particularly for underserved students. Our intermediary
partners have worked tirelessly to establish longstanding partnerships
with more than 3,500 schools, districts and community-based
org1nizations that provide high-quality after-school and summer
programming, building systems that collectively reach 500,000 students
each year.
Our network looks forward to the opportunity to work with Dr.
Cardona to prioritize the needs of all students and keep equity at the
forefront of education initiatives and COVID-19 recovery efforts. This
pandemic has created urgent crises that need attention and solutions.
The work of our intermediaries is more important than ever before, as
the students we serve are navigating learning loss, as well as trauma
due to food insecurity and racial inequity exacerbated by the pandemic.
Dr. Cardona's background in bilingual education demonstrates his desire
to support an inclusive education system.
Dr. Cardona's dedication to serving as a public school teacher and
principal in his hometown of Meriden, Connecticut illustrates his
commitment to community. Our networks operate as the link between
schools and communities to help keep youth safe and healthy, increase
academic engagement, achievement and career readiness, and provide
youth with innovative, individualized enriching opportunities
throughout the year. We believe that Dr. Cardona has demonstrated a
commitment to the values that our network upholds through his public
service.
Every Hour Counts stands ready to support Dr. Cardona as the U.S.
Secretary of Education and further enable high-quality expanded
learning programs to be essential community institutions and important
drivers of neighborhood vitality. Our network applauds Dr. Cardona's
expertise and dedication to serving youth and we look forward to his
tenure as U.S. Secretary of Education.
Sincerely,
Jessica Donner,
Executive Director
______
National Education Association
1201 16th Street, NW Washington, DC
February 9, 2021
Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, DC.
Dear Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee:
The 3.1 million members of the National Education Association are
proud to enthusiastically support President Biden's nominee for U.S.
Secretary of Education, Dr. Miguel A. Cardona, and we urge you to vote
YES on his nomination. Votes on this issue may be included in NEA's
Report Card for the 117th Congress.
NEA members teach, support, mentor, and nurture students in public
schools and on public college campuses across America. They know what
it is like to look into a student's eyes to determine who's getting the
lesson, and who's getting left behind--and they know the challenge of
devising new methods to reach and engage students in the context of
remote learning. They understand the importance of being present for
children who are coping with losses or struggling with adult-size
burdens, or the need to counsel students who must juggle classes,
families, and full-time jobs. Dr. Cardona, a longtime teacher and
elementary school principal who has also been an adjunct professor,
knows this work intimately.
As an educator and as Connecticut's education commissioner, Dr.
Cardona would bring to the Education Department desperately needed
firsthand experience. He would advance the department's mission of
``fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access'' because
he has devoted his career to these goals. His commitment stems not only
from professional expertise, but also from an understanding of the
hardships students who are learning English face--hardships he dealt
with as a child whose family moved to Connecticut from Puerto Rico.
Those struggles helped him to become the dedicated, compassionate, and
forceful advocate for students that he is today.
Dr. Cardona is known as a consensus builder and problem solver who
listens to and actively collaborates with educators, families, and
communities. Whether as a classroom teacher, principal, or state
education leader, he has pressed for the resources students deserve.
Additionally, he has worked with higher education leaders to secure and
expand students' opportunities for postsecondary education.
His depth of experience was on full display during his confirmation
hearing this month, when he was questioned about a variety of issues,
including mental health resources for students and the need to reform
the department's Office of Federal Student Aid so that it works on
behalf of student-loan borrowers. NEA members were particularly
heartened by Dr. Cardona's commitment to ``make sure our learning
environments are places that are free of discrimination and harassment
for all learners.''
Given the many challenges our Nation continues to face, we have
confidence that Dr. Cardona will help us to provide the high-quality
education, safe and welcoming public schools and campuses, and support
that all students must have in order to thrive.
Sincerely,
Rebecca S. Pringle,
President
National Education Association
______
[Whereupon, the hearing was adjourned at 2:38 p.m.]
[all]