Education

It’s Okay To Not Yet Have A Take On Cardona


In short order, the new Congress will take up the nomination of Connecticut schools chief Miguel Cardona as Secretary of Education. It’s a safe bet Cardona will be rapidly confirmed. President-elect Biden’s selection was an adroit one. After all, the Democrats have deeps fissure on K-12 schooling. While Biden might’ve sidestepped the divides by appointing a college president, he’d promised to appoint a public school educator. That kind of boxed him in. And, at one point, it looked like Biden might be on the verge of picking former NEA president Lily Eskelsen Garcia, risking a fierce, distracting fight. 

Instead, Biden picked Cardona—a K-12 candidate whose lack of a paper trail allowed the president-elect to avoid taking sides. If Cardona were a Supreme Court nominee, he’s what would be termed a “stealth” nominee. Cardona has had a long career as a classroom teacher, principal, and administrator in a smallish district, and has spent the past 18 months as head of Connecticut’s education agency, but he’s never taken a public stance on the issues that divide Democrats.

Cardona’s a likable figure who doesn’t obviously rub anybody wrong. He has a heartwarming personal story. He grew up in a housing project, learned English as a second language, attended public colleges, and went on to be Connecticut’s youngest principal. He says it’s vital to get kids back to school, speaks passionately about supporting vulnerable kids, and waxes enthusiastically about public education. There’s something there for pretty much everyone. The teacher unions (which were going to have to sign off on any Biden Secretary of Education) have welcomed his appointment. So have charter school advocates, who were relieved that Biden didn’t name someone openly hostile to school choice.

Cardona seems like a good guy and a committed educator. Quite appropriately, he’s been met with a genial, respectful reception (pretty much the opposite of the one accorded to Betsy DeVos when she was first nominated). Now, a churlish observer might ask whether Cardona, at least by the standard applied to DeVos, has the management experience to run the U.S. Department of Education, with its thousands of employees, billions in outlays, and sprawling higher ed responsibilities.

Indeed, by the DeVos standard, Cardona might be held responsible for the abysmal performance of Connecticut’s urban school systems. (True, he’s only been state chief for a year and change, which makes it ridiculous to blame him for New Haven’s longtime struggles; but DeVos never held a position of authority in Michigan and yet was routinely faulted for the troubled plight of Detroit’s schools.)

The better course, though, is to adopt a more measured, sensible standard than the one applied to DeVos. Is Cardona up to the rigors of leading the U.S. Department of Education? Did a brief stint running Connecticut’s K-12 bureaucracy prepare him for the role? We’ll see.

Cardona’s “stealth” status has an expiration date. Stances will be taken. Decisions will be made. He will make public statements that will start to fill in the blanks. Over time, we will all begin to make up our minds based on what he says and does. But there’s no need to rush to judgment on the basis of scattered quotes or anecdotal accounts. There’s nothing wrong with waiting, watching, and then deciding.  

Most of us don’t yet know enough about Cardona to make an informed judgment. That’s fine. Social media and the 24/7 news cycle tempt us to spew certainties as fast as we can type them. That’s a problem. It robs us of room to find our way, forge trust, or surprise our skeptics. And it turns everything into an amped-up grudge match, whether or not it needs or deserves to be.

I don’t know what I think of Cardona. I’ll figure it out in time. And that’s okay.



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