WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Miguel Cardona criticized efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to allow veterans without college degrees to teach in Florida public schools, saying the initiative lowers standards for teachers.
“The moment we start lowering standards to get [into teaching], we’re doubling down on the disrespect to the profession,” Cardona said. “I’m all for veterans becoming teachers … but let’s let’s remember when the nation’s report card is showing that our students have dropped drastically to provide educators who are not qualified or trained in the pedagogy of teaching is a slap in the face to the profession.”
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The Florida program, finalized in July, allows veterans and military spouses to teach in Florida public schools without a college degree, provided that they have completed at least 60 hours of college credit and maintained a 2.5 GPA.
Cardona made the comments during a roundtable breakfast with reporters Wednesday that touched on a wide range of topics, including the recently enacted student loan forgiveness for borrowers making less than $125,000, which he defended extensively.
“The intent of this debt relief is to make sure borrowers are not worse off after the pandemic than they were before,” the secretary said. “We’re not complaining that businesses were forced to shut their doors, and we provided support for businesses through PPP. And we’re thrilled we did that because a lot of these businesses that are still open now would not have been open had it not been for that.”
The secretary also weighed in on the status of the department’s rewrite of Title IX regulations, which have generated significant controversy due to the inclusion of gender identity and sexual orientation as protected classes under the federal nondiscrimination law. To date, the proposed regulations have received over 150,000 public comments ahead of a Sept. 12 deadline, which Cardona did not commit to extending.
“The Title IX rules reflect the values that every child’s education matters,” Cardona said in response to a question from the Washington Examiner. “I think at this point, it’s important that we communicate what we believe the rules should be based on the comments and based on our thoughts at the department.”
When the department proposed the revision of its Title IX rules in June, it also announced that it would undergo a separate rule-making process for Title IX regulations on athletics and the inclusion of transgender athletes in school athletic programs based on their stated gender identity rather than their biological sex.
Cardona told the Washington Examiner that the reason the issue will be put forth in a separate rule-making process is because he believes that it “require[d] another round of input” specific to that issue.
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“We hear daily the different opinions that people have, and we want to make sure we give it time for people to comment just specifically on that,” Cardona said.
“We want to move quickly on that,” he added. “But we also recognize that rushing through something that’s so important could create a situation where people are not feeling heard or feel like they’re not given an opportunity to speak.”
