Secretary Cardona Appears Before House Education Committee
On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona appeared before the House Education and Labor Committee for the full Committee hearing, “Examining the Policies and Priorities of the U.S. Department of Education.” The Committee discussed the suite of proposals that have come from the Department of Education (ED) this year, including the American Jobs Plan, American Families Plan, and the Fiscal Year 2022 budget proposal.
In his opening remarks, Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA) stressed that recovery from the pandemic was not adequate, and that addressing underlying systemic inequalities is imperative to building an education system where every student can succeed.
Ranking Member Virginia Foxx (R-NC) focused her remarks on the closure of school buildings regardless of scientific evidence which shows COVID-19 has a lesser impact on children; pointed to Democrats for the harm that school shutdowns did to children; and objected to President Biden’s “bloated” budget which has “no hope of becoming law,” but would also fail to reverse the damage caused by the pandemic.
Secretary Cardona expanded on the need to rectify the underlying inequities within the education system that impact students and their families, highlighting key components of ED’s budget proposal, including placing IDEA on the first step of a glidepath to full funding.