(This event is now over.)
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will introduce their education secretary pick, Miguel Cardona, on Wednesday morning.
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A livestream of the event at 10:15 a.m. in Wilmington, Delaware, will be placed in this article, but delays are possible. If there is not a livestream available, check back at a later time.
Biden says Cardona, Connecticut’s education chief and a lifelong champion of public schools, is a product of public schools, starting when he entered kindergarten unable to speak English.
In the announcement of his nomination, shared first with The Associated Press, Biden said Cardona would offer America “an experienced and dedicated public school teacher leading the way at the Department of Education."
“He will help us address systemic inequities, tackle the mental health crisis in our education system, give educators a well-deserved raise, ease the burden of education debt, and secure high-quality, universal pre-K for every three- and four-year-old in the country,” Biden said in a statement.
"As a lifelong champion of public education, he understands that our children are the kite strings that keep our national ambitions aloft — and that everything that will be possible for our country tomorrow will be thanks to the investments we make and the care that our educators and our schools deliver today.”
According to a source familiar with Biden's decision, Cardona was selected in part because of his experiences as a former public school teacher, an administrator, a public school parent and someone with the experience to do the job on his first day in office.
The source said one of Cardona’s top priorities will be to work with state and local officials to get kids back to school safely during the pandemic. And as a child who grew up in a housing project, he will focus in particular on closing the racial and socioeconomic gaps in education.