WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Miguel Cardona will push for funding increases to federal grants designed to boost low-income students and students with disabilities in a Thursday speech outlining his policy priorities for his second year in office.
Excerpts of the speech shared in advance with the Miami Herald show Cardona will touch on a variety of topics ranging from student loan debt to mental health support for K-12 students, but the overall theme will be using the reopening of schools after two years of disruption from the pandemic as an opportunity to address long-standing gaps in the education system.
“We can’t lose this moment — this chance for a reset in education — by going back to the same pre-pandemic strategies that did not address inequities for Latino, Black, and Native students; students from low-income backgrounds; students from rural communities; students with disabilities; students experiencing homelessness, and English learners,” Cardona will say in the Thursday speech at the Department of Education’s headquarters in Washington.
