[ad_1]
President Biden’s nominee, Dr. Miguel Cardona, is formally set to exchange Betsy DeVos as the subsequent U.S. Secretary of Schooling.
After being confirmed by the Senate with a 64-33 vote on March 1, 2020, he’ll now take cost of the Division of Schooling throughout a time when faculty reopenings and scholar mortgage reduction are on the heart of many debates.
Right here’s what we learn about Dr. Cardona up to now and the way his potential insurance policies may affect you.
Who’s Dr. Miguel Cardona?
Dr. Cardona is the brand new Secretary of Schooling for the federal authorities. Previous to his affirmation, he served as Connecticut’s commissioner of training.
He has a broad background in Ok-12 faculties, starting his profession as an elementary faculty trainer. Dr. Cardona then progressed into different roles inside public faculties, together with serving because the youngest principal in Connecticut and later as an administrator.
Different notable info about Dr. Cardona embrace:
- He was a first-generation faculty scholar.
- Spanish is his first language.
- He holds 5 levels or certificates from Connecticut universities, together with his bachelor’s, grasp’s, doctorate and superintendent certificates.
- He was Connecticut’s first Latino training commissioner.
Dr. Cardona doesn’t have expertise in Washington D.C., however he obtained reward from either side of the political aisle throughout his Senate affirmation listening to.
Briefly, it seems he’ll depend on his first-hand expertise (and the enter of many stakeholders) to champion college students, households and educators.
Dr. Miguel Cardona’s Senate affirmation listening to
Very like throughout former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ confirmation hearing, senators requested only a few questions associated to greater training. The first focus was on safely reopening faculties and schools throughout the nation.
Discussions included the necessity for assets to fight studying loss and to handle the trauma skilled all through this pandemic. In addition they concerned questions surrounding weak populations of scholars (e.g. college students with disabilities and LGBTQ college students).
These are all urgent points, however we didn’t hear an excessive amount of about his place or plans surrounding greater training past his intent to enhance entry to alternatives for all.
Senator Burr briefly talked about the federal scholar mortgage freeze and his desire to keep away from present mortgage cancellation proposals. As an alternative, he pushed for laws that “dramatically simplifies scholar mortgage reimbursement choices” and caps funds at 10% of discretionary earnings with mortgage forgiveness after 20 years.
Senator Warren tackled the scholar debt dialogue head-on, regardless of having distant connection points. She introduced up considerations associated to scholar mortgage debtors who didn’t graduate and the affect of scholar debt on Black and Latino debtors. She additionally said she believes the Secretary of Schooling has the ability to offer mortgage cancellation.
Though these matters have been shortly touched upon, no direct questions associated to scholar mortgage cancellation or reimbursement have been requested of Dr. Cardona.
However he did have an opportunity to emphasise his help for strengthening group schools and profession and technical training pathways.
Watch Dr. Cardona’s Senate confirmation hearing for your self. Skip ahead to the 15:30 minute mark.
Why this issues to you
Between his background in Ok-12 training and the pandemic’s affect on faculties throughout the nation, there’s nice emphasis on shifting ahead with safely reopening faculties and protecting them open.
In case you have school-aged kids, these discussions associated to fast reopening options and long-term assets needs to be of specific curiosity.
Nonetheless, in terms of greater training insurance policies, we don’t anticipate him to make dramatic adjustments. However we do anticipate him to align with lots of the higher education policies being discussed by the Biden administration.
Dr. Cardona hasn’t detailed particular greater training plans for his new position as he’s been shifting by the method of being confirmed. However primarily based on discussions and his background, we’d see greater training coverage adjustments which might be centered on:
- Offering focused reduction efforts for individuals who want it essentially the most. This would possibly embrace assets to assist re-engage faculty college students who’ve suffered academically and financially through the pandemic. It may additionally embrace adjustments to income-driven reimbursement (IDR) plans to make scholar mortgage funds extra reasonably priced.
- Supporting some degree of scholar mortgage cancellation. Dr. Cardona mentioned he helps President Biden’s plan to again Congressional motion to cancel $10,000 of federal scholar loans per borrower.
- Creating extra pathways to school and technical careers, which could embrace extra reasonably priced group schools. Dr. Cardona has known as group schools “the nation’s best-kept secret” and mentioned that he helps President Biden’s push for no-cost group schools.
- Making adjustments to the Public Service Mortgage Forgiveness (PSLF) program. Dr. Cardona has signaled his help of President Biden’s higher education plans, which can seemingly embrace plans to repair lots of the PSLF program’s key issues.
It’s additionally seemingly that he’ll outsource the administration of the scholar mortgage system and comply with by with transitioning to the brand new mortgage servicers.
Whereas we look forward to extra info, one factor is obvious: many scholar debt advocates really feel hopeful about Dr. Cardona’s affirmation and what it might imply for scholar mortgage debtors.
For instance, Pupil Debt Disaster, a nonprofit devoted to reforming scholar debt and better training mortgage insurance policies, launched a press release of help for Dr. Cardona. Government Director Natalia Abrams mentioned:
“The nomination of Miguel Cardona for Schooling Secretary brings the prospect of hope that present scholar debt reduction packages can be applied because the legislation meant, and hope that complete scholar debt cancellation is inside attain.”
We’ll proceed to replace you as we be taught extra about Dr. Cardona’s potential greater training insurance policies.
[ad_2]
Source link