Cardona highlights Biden administration efforts to help students and educators

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The education secretary, Miguel Cardona, spent time yesterday with Daniel Tiger. They met with preschoolers in Pittsburgh.

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MIGUEL CARDONA: OK. You got to close your eyes.

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: One, two, three.

CARDONA: Open your eyes.

UNIDENTIFIED PRESCHOOLER: Daniel Tiger.

CARDONA: Daniel Tiger is here.

INSKEEP: (Laughter) We can tell who is the big star there. But the secretary was promoting the Biden administration's efforts to help students and educators and college borrowers. NPR's Cory Turner is in Pittsburgh. Cory, good morning.

CORY TURNER, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.

INSKEEP: What's the secretary saying?

TURNER: Well, a little bit of everything. He started the six-day bus tour Monday in Tennessee, talking about the teacher pipeline, Tuesday in Virginia. He was talking about ways schools can use federal emergency dollars to help students make up for missed learning. And then yesterday, the secretary was talking about student mental health in the morning, reading to kids after lunch and then made time last night to pop into a workshop, encouraging teachers to apply for public service loan forgiveness since the temporary expansion of that program expires next month.

INSKEEP: A lot of news to touch on there. But you mentioned missed learning. Let's dig in on that because we've had discussions on this program about how much kids missed when schools were closed, particularly in the early many, many months of the pandemic. What is Cardona saying now about K-12 education?

TURNER: Yeah. He is still very focused on the pandemic's toll, not only missed learning, he's also highlighting emotional and mental health supports for kids, honestly, kindergarten through college. But, yeah, as you said, he is very focused on missed learning. Let's take a listen to one of the things he told me.

CARDONA: I'm proud that this summer, I think a record number of Americans attended summer school. And, you know, I smile because, you know, when you think of summer school, you think of a traditional summer school. Well, over the summer, children had an opportunity to engage socially, to have academic enrichment.

TURNER: You know, Cardona told me that on this trip, he's also seeing more federally funded learning support in schools, afterschool programs. That said, Steve, look; you know, Cardona's job right now is to be the optimist. Recent testing data show that reading and math scores both are way down. And Cardona and school leaders that I have talked to know the effects of the pandemic are not going away quickly. This will take years.

INSKEEP: Then there is the matter of student loans, which is the other big news that you mentioned. How's that unrolling?

TURNER: Yeah. So he reiterated that the application for the big student loan relief plan is going to be available in early October. Remember, loan payments are supposed to restart in January. So if the White House is right, that some 20 million borrowers should technically qualify to have their debts completely erased, then, you know, the timeline here matters, Steve. Erasing them before payments restart would save an enormous amount of hassle and confusion for borrowers and the department both, which is why Cardona told me he's determined to get this done quickly.

CARDONA: While I'm not going to share timelines right now, I will tell you, January 1, when the loans start, we have to have all that set up.

TURNER: You know, and not just set up, Steve. Cardona told me, by January, we're going to have to be done with that process, he said. Then again, honestly, based on reporting I've done in the past, we know that the Education Department has not been good at implementing student loan relief programs in the past. So when I expressed some skepticism about the department's ability to do this, he really doubled down. And he said he had a message for borrowers and reporters like me who are feeling kind of cynical about the department's ability. He said, we're going to do it. And we're going to do it better than people expect.

INSKEEP: NPR education correspondent Cory Turner. Thanks so much.

TURNER: You're welcome.

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