During the San Antonio Report’s 10th annual Ed Forum, Miguel Cardona, the secretary of education under the Biden administration, warned against the impacts of a dismantled Department of Education, denounced school vouchers and emphasized the importance of leadership and community collaboration in public education.
Cardona is a first-generation college graduate who began his career in education as a fourth grade teacher.
He went on to lead the U.S. Department of Education under President Joe Biden, where he oversaw the reopening of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, the forgiveness of $185 billion in student loans, particularly for those targeted by predatory schools, and the overhaul of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA.
Impact of shrinking DOE
Speaking to more than 200 city and education leaders, Cardona referenced recent actions by President Donald Trump’s administration to cut the DOE in half, including the dismantlement of the Office for English Learning Acquisition, an office that ensures that students who speak other languages have adequate programming to learn English.
An English learner and past bilingual teacher himself, Cardona said the slashing of the English learning acquisition office didn’t make sense given that 29% of students in the country identify as Hispanic or Latino. In Texas, more than 50% of students identify as Hispanic, according to data from the Texas Education Agency.
“Bilingualism is a superpower,” Cardona said. “For far too long in my career, I’ve looked at students who, because they know a native language, but don’t know English, felt inferior — felt like second-class citizens.”
Cardona also said a smaller DOE meant less support for the neediest students in the country, especially those who rely on Title I funding and funding from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act since many of those fired from the department were in charge of disbursing those monies to states.
That mechanism is now gone at the federal level, Cardona said. He added that while federal funds account for a small part of school budgets, federal regulations are meant to hold districts accountable and maintain a sense of stability for students in districts that cyclically change leadership.
On average, federal funding accounts for 10% of school districts’ budgets.
In the case of San Antonio Independent School District, federal funds account for 17% of the district’s budget, said superintendent Jaime Aquino, who was in attendance during Cardona’s speech.
“It’s a significant number from us,” Aquino said. To brace for possible funding cuts, Aquino said SAISD is not offering summer school this year, except for students who are mandated or required to attend.
When asked by a professor from the University of Texas in San Antonio if he anticipates the DOE would be restored to its previous size and scope under a different administration, Cardona said the department may not go back to what it was, but he does anticipate “some building it up” to restore protections for students.
“I do believe that this is a storm and that this will pass,” Cardona said.
Cardona also said students’ civil rights are at stake because of the action to cut down the Education Department, which included reducing the number of offices for civil rights from 12 to five. Rather than ensuring students have access to education free from discrimination, Cardona said the Office of Civil Rights has become the “transgender police” while chasing “culture war headlines” at higher education institutions.
When asked about the federal government’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in education and how to ensure Latinos are represented, Cardona said Latinos should be unapologetic about their culture and stressed the “economic imperative” of cultural representation.
A son to Puerto Rican parents, Cardona said DEI is a personal issue to him, and said “it’s hard to make policy change when you’re not in the room.”
Cardona against school vouchers
As state lawmakers get closer to passing school vouchers, or education savings accounts, which would give participating families taxpayer dollars for education-related costs including private school tuition, Cardona spoke out against them and warned they would lead to the privatization of education.
“The local public school should always be a viable option, and while I support school and parent choice, what I don’t support is taking money from public education to fund private education,” said Cardona, who graduated high school from a state technical school and not his local public school.
Using public dollars for school vouchers “exacerbates a system of have and have nots” because private schools are not required to accept or enroll all students, including students with special needs, Cardona said.
He warned that private schools that accept school vouchers for “less attractive” students would systematically send those students back to public schools after the deadline the state uses to measure school enrollment and attendance, which influences how much funding schools get.
SAISD, which currently has a budget deficit of more than $40 million, is bracing for the impact of school vouchers by collecting data on the private schools within the district’s boundaries and by sharing the potential pros and cons of using a voucher vs. attending a public school with students’ families.
“If we lose kids, we’re going to have to do another right set of rightsizing and close more schools,” Aquino told the Report.
Karla Duran, a trustee on the school board for Northside Independent School District who was also in attendance at the Ed Forum, said her district is preparing for the possibility of no increased funding from the state by making budgetary cuts and adjusting the student to teacher ratio.
During a school board meeting last month, NISD trustees considered expanding class sizes as a cost-saving measure for a district with a $96 million budget deficit.
On top of not having enough funding, public schools across the state and country are struggling to recruit and keep teachers in classrooms, but Cardona said it’s not just a teacher shortage issue.
“We have a teacher respect issue,” Cardona said, referencing a national study that found teachers were paid 24% less on average compared to other professionals with the same level of education.
‘A great time to be a leader’
“I’m not going to be here just spreading doom and gloom,” Cardona told the eduction forum crowd, highlighting some of his accomplishments as Secretary of Education including the overhaul of FAFSA and the reopening of schools after COVID.
Despite initial snags in the redesign of FAFSA, Cardona said 500,000 more students than usual qualified for student aid last year, a feat he attributed to collaboration with other education leaders.
“We must find common ground on what we know our students need,” which includes making sure students can read well by the third grade, ensuring the safety of students, embracing technical and career-focused development options and making higher education more accessible, Cardona said.
“We need to stop looking at each other as Republicans and Democrats and look at our neighbors as Americans,” he said. “We need to focus on the 80% we agree on, and stop just pointing at the 20% we don’t agree on.”
During what seems to be a challenging time for education, Cardona said it’s a “great time to be a leader.”
Duran said her key takeaway from Cardona’s speech was his emphasis on bipartisan collaboration in education, and added that leaders should be preemptively investing in education.
“It costs more to incarcerate than it does to educate. So why not educate? Why not choose education?” Duran said.
Emily Calderón Galdeano, the interim CEO of the youth-focused nonprofit UP Partnership in San Antonio, said Cardona’s words inspired her to keep sharing young people’s stories.
“Telling those stories, that’s how we can compel action,” Calderón Galdeano said. “Let’s not forget student voice.”
To end his keynote speech, Cardona made the case for the support of independent journalism.
“What we also need is a free press that goes beyond the sexy headlines to chronicle the successes and the failures of our journey, so that we’re informed … that the consumers can form their own opinion,” he said.
