The Learning Recovery

MIGUEL CARDONA STARTED OUT as a public school teacher, was later named principal of the year in Connecticut, and eventually served as the state’s education commissioner before being confirmed as President Biden’s Secretary of Education. Newsweek spoke to him about the challenges facing students and parents as the country emerges from the pandemic.

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said she wants to see schools opened for five days a week of in-person learning and you tweeted in support of her view. Can you share your stance on opening schools this fall?

What I supported was the fact that a lot of people are saying teachers don’t want schools open, but that’s absolutely not the case. Teachers want schools open safely.

I had a meeting with the entire staff [recently] and I was sharing with them that last June, July in Connecti-cut we had to make a tough decision. We had to make a decision based on a minuscule set of data around transmission rates because the pandemic was two or three months old. We were