What do we know about Biden’s Secretary of Education Nominee Dr. Miguel Cardona ‘s Views About Early Childhood Education?
Early this week, Joe Biden's transition announced Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona as the President-elect's nominee for education secretary. Biden pledged to chose a teacher as his education secretary and Cardona fills that promise. According to his official biography, “Dr. Cardona comes to the State Department of Education with two decades of experience as a public school educator from the city of Meriden. He began his career as an elementary school teacher and then served as a school principal for 10 years. Miguel transitioned to the central office to lead the work of performance and evaluation in the district.”
How might this impact Early Childhood Education?
The official press release of about Dr. Cardona’s nomination states he will work to “secure high-quality, universal pre-K for every three- and four year-old in the country”
Dr. Cardona had an interest in early childhood before being nominated as he was the co-chairperson of the Connecticut Birth to Grade Three Leaders Council. The stated goal of the leadership council is to “advocate for effective early childhood programming in an effort to help all children be prepared for success in school”
In 2014, Dr Cardona co-led a task force in Connecticut that “including the provision of full day, accredited preschool for all low-income children and an initiative to ensure that every Connecticut parent have at least a high school degree.”
In the past, I have argued that well-funded public libraries are a key part of early childhood education (and education in general. Dr. Cardona seems to share this belief about libraries ““Libraries serve as important resource hubs outside of the classroom by providing students and their families with equitable access to engaging programs, supports and multimedia learning materials at no cost,” said Connecticut Education Commissioner Miguel Cardona. “As we make progress to close the digital divide and meet the remote learning needs of our students, we must do everything we can to continue to support the crucial role our librarians and libraries play in this area by enhancing the overall educational experience for all learners in their communities.”
Overall, there is still a lot we do not know about how Dr. Cardona might impact Early childhood education, but from his past experience and statements, it looks like he will be a champion for ECE. That being said, in the future, we will try to keep track of what Dr. Cardona and the Biden administration do or do not do related to ECE and report that.
Above Photo From Cardona’s official state biography which can be found here: https://portal.ct.gov/SDE/About/Commissioner
