Biden has reportedly landed on Miguel Cardona, Connecticut schools chief, for education secretary

Joe Biden
(Image credit: Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images)

President-elect Joe Biden is set to nominate Miguel Cardona, Connecticut's commissioner of public schools, as education secretary, The Washington Post reports, adding that the announcement could be made before Christmas on Friday. Cardona was named to his current position just last year, and before that he was assistant superintendent in Meriden, Connecticut, a district with about 9,000 students. He was born in Meriden to Puerto Rican parents, and he became Connecticut's youngest principal when he was only 28.

Biden has not made a final offer, the Post reports, citing people close to the president-elect, but he met virtually with Cardona on Monday, alone with future first lady Jill Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. Biden has pledged to pick someone with a background in public education to the Education Department, and Cardona is seen as more of a consensus candidate than Biden's other rumored finalist, Howard University's Leslie Fenwick, who is a sharp critic of testing-based accountability and other business-style education policies.

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.