Free Daily Headlines :

  • COVID-19
  • Vaccine Info
  • Money
  • Politics
  • Education
  • Health
  • Justice
  • More
    • Environment
    • Economic Development
    • Gaming
    • Investigations
    • Social Services
    • TRANSPORTATION
  • Opinion
    • CT Viewpoints
    • CT Artpoints
DONATE
Reflecting Connecticut’s Reality.
    COVID-19
    Vaccine Info
    Money
    Politics
    Education
    Health
    Justice
    More
    Environment
    Economic Development
    Gaming
    Investigations
    Social Services
    TRANSPORTATION
    Opinion
    CT Viewpoints
    CT Artpoints

LET�S GET SOCIAL

Show your love for great stories and out standing journalism

As Biden eyes Cardona for education secretary, focus is on how he handled school reopening

  • Politics
  • by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and Adria Watson
  • December 21, 2020
  • View as "Clean Read" "Exit Clean Read"

Yehyun Kim :: CT Mirror

Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona participates in an online meeting late July in an empty computer lab at West Haven High School.

If selected to become President-Elect Joe Biden’s education secretary, Miguel Cardona would be tasked with getting public schools throughout the country reopened ASAP — a challenge he took on as Connecticut’s education commissioner with mixed results.

Roughly one-third of Connecticut’s public school students currently have the ability to attend school in person full-time.

How Cardona handled school reopening is of particular relevance as Biden considers him for the job. One of Biden’s top three COVID-19 priorities for his first 100 days in office is to “reopen the majority of schools.”

“If Congress provides the funding we need to protect students, educators, and staff; if states and cities put strong public health measures in place that we all follow, then my team will work to see that a majority of our schools can be open by the end of my first 100 days,” Biden said during a Dec. 8 press conference.

Cardona’s name has emerged as one of three top contenders for the job along with Leslie T. Fenwick, dean emeritus of the Howard University School of Education, and North Carolina’s Guilford County Schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras, the Washington Post and CNN reported. On Friday, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus wrote Biden urging he select Cardona, who is Puerto Rican.

On Monday, the online news source Axios reported that Biden was leaning toward selecting Cardona for the post.

The president-elect is expected to make a decision about the position before the end of the week, according to sources.

Since announcing in late July that the state would leave reopening decisions to local school districts, Cardona has walked a political tightrope as he tries to balance the needs of parents, who saw their children struggle to learn at home last spring, against well organized teachers’ unions, which have called on the state to close schools until their safety demands are met.

Although Cardona has repeatedly said he believes all the state’s K-12 schools should reopen, he has so far resisted calls to order superintendents to hold in-person classes. Instead, his department has issued a plethora of guidance for district leaders to follow so they can open their doors, and used federal pandemic aid to buy masks, plexiglass, and other protective equipment schools need to open safely. The administration has also allocated federal funds to purchase laptops and internet access so that every student has the ability to learn from home.

Cardona has also used the public spotlight to call out the “education emergency” school closures are causing, releasing data that shows the state’s most disadvantaged students are missing twice as much remote school as their peers attending in-person and only 4% of the students attending the state’s 10 lowest-performing districts are being offered the opportunity to attend in-person learning full time. The administration has also tracked COVID-19 cases in districts throughout the state, which Cardona regularly points to as proof that the virus is not spreading in schools.

The department is collecting this data so it can catch problems early, officials say.

A tweet from President-Elect Joe Biden outlining reopening schools as a top priority for his first 100 days

“Closing schools alone would not reduce the mitigation strategies, would not reduce the transmission risk in other places,” Cardona said during an interview in November, adding that transmission might even worsen if thousands of kids are at home or in the community. “In school, we know that students have their mitigation strategies, like distancing and facial coverings. There’s no way to ensure that’s happening outside of school when they’re not with us… What we’re learning… it’s families in already challenged communities that are under-resourced, that need more support. So by doing these things, we’re not only bringing the issue up, we’re using that to guide whatever resources we distribute.”

This middle-ground approach has frustrated some.

“Why are so many young children and children with disabilities shut out of school in Connecticut?” tweeted Sarah Eagan, the state’s child advocate, on Nov. 30, the day New York City announced its schools would be opening their doors for students with disabilities.

“Connecticut needs to take a much closer look at how it is handling discretionary school closures,”she tweeted later that day after Gov. Ned Lamont’s announcement that he would allow restaurants to stay open and not order schools to open.

Cardona has also taken considerable heat about not intervening in New Haven’s decision not to reopen its schools, despite 55% of parents and guardians reporting they would return their children to school and hundreds of signatures on a petition urging the school board to reconsider. New Haven, where one out of every 26 students in Connecticut is enrolled, is the state’s largest school district. 

screen shot of Facebook event page

The lead photo from a Facebook page organizing a ‘Car Caravan for a Safe and Fully-Funded Back to School’ at the state Capitol during the summer.

“Younger children stand to lose the most from an additional extended period of remote learning and we can get them what they need to thrive while also posing the minimal risk to them, their teachers, their families, and the community,” a group of 14 parents wrote in an opinion piece in the New Haven Independent in August. “Other districts in Connecticut plan to send their kids back to school in a few weeks. Private schools in New Haven will do the same thing. Public school students in our city deserve equal consideration.”

Instead of ordering New Haven to reopen its schools, the administration has instead tried to publicly shame officials there.

“The schools in the suburbs stayed open. The schools in New Haven never opened and that broke my heart that those kids in New Haven — overwhelmingly Black and brown [students] — have not had the opportunity to go to a classroom to be with the teacher, to be with their friends, to learn in person, for I think eight months at this point, and that’s one of the worst inequities I can see,” Lamont, a Democrat and an early Biden supporter, said last week.

Pushback from unions has been a countervailing force.

Most recently, on December 10, leaders from the state’s teachers’ unions stood outside the state capitol with a lengthy scroll of paper containing the names of the 14,000 Connecticut educators, school employees and community members who signed a petition calling for Cardona and Lamont to order schools closed until they implement all the safety mandates included in the unions’ “Safe and Successful Schools Now” plan.

“To put it mildly, I’m afraid for the next week,” said Jeff Leake, president of the Connecticut Education Association. “With surging infection rates and vaccines for the general public not available until after the new year, the state must shift to full-time remote learning until at least mid-January to ensure that in-person learning is a safe strategy for our students and our teachers, not an experiment, not a gamble.”

Since Cardona’s name was thrown in the mix as a contender for the job, teachers’ unions in Connecticut have said he would be a good pick, while some who are frustrated that their schools remain closed have privately wondered why he would want the job given his dedication to local control.

“Miguel Cardona’s formative experience as a teacher and administrator has been critical to his accomplishments as Connecticut Education Commissioner. He has been tested by the unprecedented upheaval caused by the pandemic,” the unions said in a joint statement. “While this challenge has been a rocky road — and many issues remain unresolved — teachers and school support staff have appreciated his openness and collaboration. If selected as Secretary of Education, Dr. Cardona would be a positive force for public education — light years ahead of the dismal Betsy DeVos track record.”

Yehyun Kim :: ctmirror.org

Desks are set up at a gym for alternate learning classes at Carrigan Intermediate School in West Haven.

Sign up for CT Mirror's free daily news summary.

Free to Read. Not Free to Produce.

The Connecticut Mirror is a nonprofit newsroom. 90% of our revenue comes from people like you. If you value our reporting please consider making a donation. You'll enjoy reading CT Mirror even more knowing you helped make it happen.

YES, I'LL DONATE TODAY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacqueline Rabe Thomas is CT Mirror’s Education and Housing Reporter and an original member of the CT Mirror staff. She has won first-place awards for investigative reporting from state, New England, and national organizations. Before joining CT Mirror in late 2009, Jacqueline was a reporter, online editor and website developer for The Washington Post Co.’s Maryland newspaper chains. She has also worked for Congressional Quarterly and the Toledo Free Press. Jacqueline received an undergraduate degree in journalism from Bowling Green State University and a master’s in public policy from Trinity College.

Adria Watson is CT Mirror's Education and Community Reporter. She grew up in Oakland, graduated from Sacramento State where she was co-news editor of the student newspaper, and worked as a part-time reporter at CalMatters (the California version of CT Mirror). Most recently Adria interned at The Marshall Project, a national nonprofit news organization that reports on criminal justice issues. Adria is one of CT Mirror’s Report For America Corps Members.

SEE WHAT READERS SAID

RELATED STORIES
1,500 Hartford school staff to be vaccinated this week at pop-up clinic
by Adria Watson

Vaccinations are taking place Thursday and Friday. A second round will be scheduled in coming days.

With billions in federal relief on the way to CT, legislators assert their role in deciding how to spend it
by Keith M. Phaneuf and Mark Pazniokas

With an unusual bill, state legislators are reminding Gov. Ned Lamont they have significant role in disbursing federal coronavirus relief.

As the push to reopen schools intensifies, Miguel Cardona and first lady Jill Biden travel to Meriden to show how this town did it
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and Adria Watson

Cardona said getting the nation's schools reopened is priority No. 1.

Rep. Patricia Billie Miller wins vacant Senate seat
by Mark Pazniokas

Rep. Patricia Billie Miller, D-Stamford, won a special election to the state Senate.

Will getting teachers vaccinated get students back in school full time? It might not be that easy
by Jacqueline Rabe Thomas, Kasturi Pananjady and Adria Watson

Districts will have to convince parents and students that in-person learning is safe and that students won't bring COVID-19 home.

Support Our Work

Show your love for great stories and outstanding journalism.

$
Select One
  • Monthly
  • Yearly
  • Once
Artpoint painter
CT ViewpointsCT Artpoints
Opinion The public health bill no one is talking about, but should be
by Brian Festa

On February 16,  the legislature's Public Health Committee conducted a public hearing on two bills, S.B. 568 and H.B. 6423, both of which would eliminate the religious exemption to mandatory vaccinations for Connecticut schoolchildren.  The hearing was capped at 24 hours, depriving nearly 1,500 members of the public who had registered for the hearing their opportunity to be heard.  The vast majority of those who did testify, and who submitted written testimony, opposed the bill.  The committee is expected to vote on the bill as early as  today. 

Opinion Students need more resources, fewer officers
by Tenille Bonilla

"School resource officer" is just a nice way to say cop. But what students really need is more resource and less officer.

Opinion The Board of Regents’ changes must not shortchange its students or faculty
by Carrie Andreoletti, PhD

As a university professor and a lifespan developmental psychologist, I tend to approach my work from a developmental perspective. This means I aim to foster a lifelong love of learning and to help others find a sense of meaning and purpose, as well as confidence in their ability to reach their goals. My approach to higher education is shaped by my desire to provide the best possible education for my students. This is why the recent Board of Regents’ proposed changes at the four state universities have me worried.

Opinion How to close schooling opportunity gaps created by the pandemic
by Carol Gale

We ask school district leaders to trust your public servants whose daily work life involves assessing student needs and planning or modifying instruction to meet those needs. Listen to their voices, as we have, and allocate precious resources on interventions that will offer increased opportunities for Hartford students to succeed.

Artwork Grand guidance
by Anne:Gogh

In a world of systemic oppression aimed towards those of darker skintones – representation matters. We are more than our equity elusive environments, more than numbers in a prison and much more than victims of societal dispositions. This piece depicts a melanated young man draped in a cape ascending high above multiple forms of oppression. […]

Artwork Shea
by Anthony Valentine

Shea is a story about race and social inequalities that plague America. It is a narrative that prompts the question, “Do you know what it’s like to wake up in new skin?”

Artwork The Declaration of Human Rights
by Andres Chaparro

Through my artwork I strive to create an example of ideas that reflect my desire to raise social consciousness, and cultural awareness. Jazz music is the catalyst to all my work, and plays a major influence in each piece of work.”

Artwork ‘A thing of beauty. Destroy it forever’
by Richard DiCarlo | Derby

During times like these it’s often fun to revisit something familiar and approach things with a different slant. I have been taking some Pop culture and Art masterpieces and applying the vintage 1960’s and 70’s classic figures (Fisher Price, little people) to the make an amusing pieces. Here is my homage to Fisher -Price, Yellow […]

Twitter Feed
A Twitter List by CTMirror

Engage

  • Reflections Tickets & Sponsorships
  • Events
  • Donate
  • Newsletter Sign-Up
  • Submit to Viewpoints
  • Submit to ArtPoints
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Commenting Guidelines
  • Legal Notices
  • Contact Us

About

  • About CT Mirror
  • Announcements
  • Board
  • Staff
  • Sponsors and Funders
  • Donors
  • Friends of CT Mirror
  • History
  • Financial
  • Policies
  • Strategic Plan

Opportunity

  • Advertising and Sponsorship
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Use of Photography
  • Work for Us

Go Deeper

  • Steady Habits Podcast
  • Economic Indicator Dashboard
  • Five Things

The Connecticut News Project, Inc. 1049 Asylum Avenue, Hartford, CT 06105. Phone: 860-218-6380

© Copyright 2021, The Connecticut News Project. All Rights Reserved. Website by Web Publisher PRO