If you were to walk into a classroom in Meriden, Connecticut, back in the late nineties, you might have seen a young, energetic teacher named Miguel Cardona. Fast forward to 2021, and that same guy was suddenly the face of the American education system. Honestly, his rise was kinda meteoric. One minute he’s the local commissioner in Connecticut, and the next, he’s sitting in a massive office in D.C., tasked with the impossible: fixing a school system that the pandemic had basically broken in half.
People often forget how high the stakes were when Joe Biden picked his Secretary of Education. The country was in the middle of a massive "open vs. closed" debate regarding schools. You had parents at each other's throats, teachers' unions feeling burnt out, and students who hadn't seen a real chalkboard in a year. Cardona was brought in as the "steady hand" to calm the storm. But as he stepped out of office in early 2025, the legacy he left behind is... well, it’s complicated.
The Man from Meriden: A Different Kind of Secretary
Most people who take on the role of Secretary of Education are career politicians or high-level academics. Cardona was a bit of an outlier. He grew up in public housing, spoke Spanish as his first language, and actually worked in the trenches of the K-12 system. He wasn't just some guy with a suit and a law degree; he was a former fourth-grade teacher and a principal.
That "practitioner" vibe was his biggest selling point. He’d talk about "fuel for the soul" when referring to being around kids. It made him feel like one of the "good guys" in a town—Washington—that often feels pretty disconnected from the reality of a 25-student classroom with a broken heater.
The Student Loan Rollercoaster
You can't talk about Biden’s education department without talking about student loans. This was, without a doubt, the most chaotic part of his tenure. Honestly, it was a total whiplash for borrowers.
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One day, you’re hearing about $10,000 or $20,000 in debt being wiped out. The next, the Supreme Court is stepping in to say "not so fast."
- The Big Swing: Cardona and Biden tried the "broad-based" approach, aiming to forgive roughly $430 billion.
- The Reality Check: In Biden v. Nebraska (2023), the Supreme Court basically struck that down, saying the administration overstepped.
- The Pivot: Instead of giving up, Cardona went for a "death by a thousand cuts" strategy. He started fixing the "broken" parts of existing programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) and the Income-Driven Repayment (IDR) plans.
By the time he left, the administration had actually managed to cancel about $175 billion in debt for millions of people—not through one big headline-grabbing move, but through a series of technical fixes and smaller programs. It wasn't the total "debt jubilee" some activists wanted, but it wasn't nothing either.
The Title IX Firestorm
If student loans were the financial headache, Title IX was the cultural one. This is the law that prevents sex-based discrimination in schools. Cardona’s team spent years drafting new rules that would explicitly protect LGBTQ+ students, specifically around gender identity.
It turned into a legal nightmare. By January 2025, several federal courts had essentially blocked these rules in dozens of states. Conservative critics argued that the Department of Education was overreaching and putting women’s sports at risk. On the flip side, advocacy groups felt the protections were a life-saving necessity for vulnerable kids.
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It’s one of those areas where no matter what Cardona did, half the country was going to be furious. By the time the administration changed hands in early 2025, many of these regulations were being rolled back or tied up in court cases that will probably take years to settle.
The FAFSA Fiasco (The Part Nobody Likes to Talk About)
We have to be honest here: the 2024 FAFSA rollout was a disaster. The "Better FAFSA" was supposed to be simpler. Instead, it was delayed for months, and when it finally launched, it was riddled with glitches.
For a guy whose whole brand was "equity," this was a huge blow. Thousands of low-income students—the very people Cardona promised to help—basically gave up on applying for college because the form wouldn't work. It’s a classic example of how good policy on paper can fall apart if the execution isn't there.
Where is He Now? (2026 Update)
So, where did the former Secretary of Education end up? In late 2025, Miguel Cardona returned to his roots—sorta. He joined the faculty at Yale’s School of Management. He’s currently co-teaching a course on education policy.
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It’s an interesting move. He’s going from the person making the policy to the person critiquing it. While the new administration (headed by Linda McMahon as of 2026) is moving toward "returning education to the states" and breaking up the federal bureaucracy, Cardona is in the Ivy League halls, likely defending the idea that the federal government needs to be involved in local schools to ensure kids don't fall through the cracks.
What We Can Learn from the Cardona Era
Looking back at those four years, it’s clear that having an "educator" in charge doesn't make the politics of education any easier. Schools have become the front lines of the American culture war, and Cardona was right in the middle of it.
If you're a student, a parent, or just someone interested in how the government works, here are some actionable ways to stay informed as the landscape changes:
- Check the "Return to States" local impact: With the current 2026 shift toward state-led education, your local school board meetings are now more important than the Department of Education in D.C. Attend one. See where the money is actually going.
- Monitor your loan servicer: If you have student loans, the "RAP" (Repayment Assistance Plan) is slated for July 2026. Keep an eye on your inbox; the transition from Biden-era plans to the new ones is going to be another administrative hurdle.
- Look at Title I funding: This is the money that goes to schools with high numbers of low-income students. As the federal government "right-sizes," make sure your local district isn't losing the equity-focused funds that Cardona fought to increase.
Ultimately, Miguel Cardona’s time as Secretary of Education showed us that while you can take the teacher out of the classroom, you can't take the classroom out of the teacher—even if the "classroom" is a massive federal agency with a multi-billion dollar budget. He tried to humanize a bureaucracy, and whether he succeeded or failed depends largely on which side of the political aisle you're standing on.