For the Second Time In Less Than Two Years, Miguel Cardona is Set to Prove Himself on a Much Larger Stage. Is He Ready for the ‘Political Headwinds’ He’d Face as U.S. Education Secretary? – The 74
When Miguel Cardona began eyeing the Connecticut school commissioner’s job in 2019, Robert Villanova admits he was a “little bit skeptical.”
At the time, Cardona — now in line to be President-elect Joe Biden’s secretary of education — had been assistant chief in the small city of Meriden for four years. Villanova, director of the Executive Leadership Program at the University of Connecticut’s Neag School of Education and Cardona’s mentor, thought he might not want to leapfrog over being superintendent.
Cardona made the jump anyway. But it wasn’t without complications. The governor’s first choice for the job had been an experienced Black superintendent. Once appointed, Cardona had “a lot of heavy lifting to do to build up his credibility” in a state where he was a relative unknown, Villanova said.
Just over a year later, history may be repeating itself.
Biden’s team initially leaned towards a respected education scholar as its pick for education secretary, the Washington Post reported, and subsequent speculation focused on two union leaders. But in Cardona, he ultimately selected a relative cypher on the national scene, someone whose last job before leading the state for 16 months was helping to oversee a district of under 9,000 students.