Biden renews pledge to reopen schools within first 100 days with Miguel Cardona as education secretary

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Please try again later {{ /verifyErrors }} Joe Biden has formally selected Miguel Cardona as his nominee to lead the Department of Education, which will be tasked with navigating the president-elect’s pledge to reopen most schools within his first 100 days in office as the US emerges from a deadly winter amid the coronavirus pandemic. The president-elect will unveil a plan to Congress early next year to fund teachers and schools, widespread testing capacity, ventilation systems and more school buses to give students proper physical distancing, all to help “achieve an ambitious but doable goal of safely opening a majority of schools by the end of our first 100 days.” That plan will also extend to a 100-day mask mandate, which the president can enforce on federal property and interstate travel. “We need to act now.” Mr Cardona – a former public school teacher and administrator who currently serves as Connecticut’s schools chief – is the third Latino nominee to join the president-elect’s incoming cabinet, which Mr Biden has promised would include a teacher in role as education secretary. “The mixed signals from the White House … have left more confusion than calm, and have left so many parents and schools feeling like they’re on their own.” Mr Biden renewed his commitment to better funding for public schools, including mental health counsellors to help free up educators to focus on teaching, and paying teachers “what they deserve.” “The work they do is of extreme national importance, and their salary should reflect that,” he said.