Miguel Cardona, a former Connecticut teacher and education commissioner, says there’s a myth floating around amid all the federal discourse over the future of the U.S. Education Department.
“Now states are going to have all the rights,” Cardona said. “No. You know what states are going to have? They’re going to have the responsibility … for building up infrastructure to do all the things that the federal government did – like distribute the dollars and ensure students are getting what they [need].”
The Education Department's main role is financial. It distributes billions of federal dollars annually to colleges and schools. It also manages the federal student loan portfolio and plays an important regulatory role in services for students. Those services range from assisting students with disabilities to those who come from low-income households and students who are unhoused.
In the weeks since Trump took office, his administration has cut the department's staff in half and overhauled much of its work. Cardona, who was education secretary under President Joe Biden, says he believes the effort is a “systematic dismantling of public education in an effort to privatize K-12 education.”
“Unfortunately, if you privatize it – and you monetize a public good – you’re going to have a system of winners and losers,” he said. “And the gaps are going to be exacerbated.”
Running parallel to privatization, Cardona said, is a federal push by the Trump administration to impose its will on classrooms.
Columbia University recently agreed to put its Middle East studies department under new supervision and overhaul its rules for protests and student discipline, acquiescing to an ultimatum by the Trump administration to implement those and other changes or risk losing billions of dollars in federal funding.
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the university was “on the right track” but has not yet indicated whether funding might be restored, leaving researchers at the school in a state of limbo.
Influencing curriculums should not be the role of the federal government, Cardona said.
“It’s not somebody’s job in D.C. to determine what is being taught in the classroom,” Cardona said. “If anything, we are seeing greater involvement at the federal level on what is being taught in the classrooms and on college campuses.”
Learn more
Hear the full interview with Cardona on Connecticut Public’s “Where We Live.”
Connecticut Public's Patrick Skahill, Catherine Shen and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
