{"id":2392590,"date":"2025-01-20T08:25:59","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T13:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/with-cardona-as-ed-secretary-schools-got-worse-by-every-metric\/"},"modified":"2025-01-20T08:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T13:33:12","slug":"with-cardona-as-ed-secretary-schools-got-worse-by-every-metric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/with-cardona-as-ed-secretary-schools-got-worse-by-every-metric\/","title":{"rendered":"With Cardona As Ed Secretary, Schools Got Worse By Every Metric"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwith-cardona-as-ed-secretary-schools-got-worse-by-every-metric%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2392590&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The\u200d article discusses the impending departure of Miguel Cardona, \u200bPresident Biden&#8217;s\u2062 Secretary \u2064of Education, \u200cas Donald trump returns to \u200boffice.It criticizes Cardona&#8217;s tenure,\u2062 highlighting critically important declines in K-12 student achievements and rising\u200d chronic absenteeism rates. despite these \u200dissues, \u200dCardona recently released a report claiming successes during his\u200d governance, asserting that investments\u200b in education have made\u2063 positive impacts. Though,the article contends that these assertions contradict the reality \u2064reflected in recent \u200c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-testing-shows-just-how-much-shuttering-schools-failed-students\/\" title=\"Federal Testing Shows Just How Much Shuttering Schools Failed Students\">student test scores<\/a>,wich show\u2063 unprecedented drops in math and reading proficiency. upcoming \u200b2024 NAEP data\u2063 is expected to further illustrate these trends.Additionally, the report\u200d notes a staggering increase in chronic absenteeism \u200bfrom 15% in 2018 to 26% in 2023.The \u2064piece portrays Cardona&#8217;s claims as misleading in\u200c light of \u200cthe actual educational performance metrics.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>President Joe Biden&rsquo;s appointed secretary of education, Miguel Cardona, is out the door as President Donald Trump returns to the Oval Office. The end of Cardona&rsquo;s tenure couldn&rsquo;t come soon enough.<\/p>\n<p>K-12 student learning achievement is pitifully low. Chronic absenteeism has skyrocketed. Condoned college campus protests are a disgrace. Federal student aid, including the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (known as FAFSA) form and process, is a mess.<\/p>\n<p>Despite four catastrophic years, Cardona released a glowing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/media\/document\/impact-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a> last week. It boasts about the U.S. Department of Education&rsquo;s &ldquo;accomplishments&rdquo; under his watch and opens with a full-page letter from the secretary. <\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This report, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/media\/document\/impact-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Impact: Fighting for Public Education<\/a>, is about more than documenting the successes under the Biden-Harris Administration. It&rsquo;s about demonstrating what&rsquo;s possible when we invest wisely in public education,&rdquo; Cardona writes, declaring that President Biden invested more in education than &ldquo;witnessed in generations.&rdquo; However, the return on that investment of hundreds of billions of dollars has been nothing short of a seismic failure.<\/p>\n<p>Continuing, Cardona <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/media\/document\/impact-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">asserts<\/a> that &ldquo;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/teachers-unions-nightmare-study-shows-charter-schools-more-cost-effective-than-district-schools\/\" title=\"Teachers\u2019 Unions Nightmare: Study Shows Charter Schools More Cost-Effective Than District Schools\">student achievement<\/a> is rising, and chronic absenteeism is falling.&rdquo; This is a blatant attempt to gaslight Americans. Under his nearly four-year tenure, student achievement overwhelmingly fell to record lows, and chronic absenteeism rose to historic highs.<\/p>\n<p>More specifically, while Cardona has been at the helm of our nation&rsquo;s education system, student test scores have sharply declined. For example, the most recent available test data, from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams in 2022, reveals the largest decline in student assessment in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationsreportcard.gov\/highlights\/mathematics\/2022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">math<\/a> since the exam began in 1990. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationsreportcard.gov\/highlights\/reading\/2022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reading<\/a> scores were the lowest since 2005 for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/north-carolina-approves-new-radical-history-curriculum-for-k-12-students\/\" title=\"North Carolina Approves New, Radical History Curriculum for K-12 Students\">fourth-grade students<\/a> and the lowest since 1998 for eighth-grade students.<\/p>\n<p>The 2024 NAEP exam data is scheduled to be released in the coming weeks. Yet with the 2022 NAEP scores revealing that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationsreportcard.gov\/highlights\/mathematics\/2022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">64 percent<\/a> of fourth-grade students and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationsreportcard.gov\/highlights\/mathematics\/2022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">73 percent<\/a> of eighth-grade students are not proficient in math, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationsreportcard.gov\/highlights\/reading\/2022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">66 percent<\/a> of fourth-grade students and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationsreportcard.gov\/highlights\/reading\/2022\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">69 percent<\/a> of eighth-grade students are not proficient in reading, it&rsquo;s unlikely there will be much to celebrate. Cardona fails to mention this core academic data reported in the Nation&rsquo;s Report Card, which is provided by the National Center for Education Statistics within the U.S. Department of Education.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, student scores on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study released in 2023 show a decline in&nbsp;math&nbsp;scores for both&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nces.ed.gov\/timss\/results23\/index.asp#\/math\/trends\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">fourth-grade<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/nces.ed.gov\/timss\/results23\/index.asp#\/math\/trends\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">eighth-grade<\/a>&nbsp;students since the prior testing conducted in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>According to the American Enterprise Institute and C2i&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.returntolearntracker.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Return 2 Learn Tracker<\/a>, chronic absenteeism, which refers to students who miss at least 10 percent of the school year, jumped from 15 percent in 2018 to a dire 26 percent in 2023 &mdash; a more than 73 percent increase.<\/p>\n<p>Cardona <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/media\/document\/impact-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">boasts<\/a>, &ldquo;More teachers, nurses, and mental health professionals are working in public education than before the pandemic.&rdquo; This is nothing to brag about. That included a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/media\/document\/impact-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">3 percent<\/a> increase in school counselors, a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/media\/document\/impact-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">23 percent<\/a> increase in nurses, and a staggering <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/media\/document\/impact-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">43 percent<\/a> increase in social workers. This is despite <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/article\/interactive-in-many-schools-declines-in-student-enrollment-are-here-to-stay\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1.2 million fewer students<\/a> attending public schools than pre-pandemic and staffing already <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the74million.org\/article\/on-a-per-student-basis-school-staffing-levels-are-hitting-all-time-highs\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bloated with non-teaching staff<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nces.ed.gov\/programs\/digest\/d23\/tables\/dt23_213.40.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">outnumbering teachers<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As far as higher education, while Cardona verbally condemned the antisemitic activities on college campuses after being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2024\/04\/30\/miguel-cardona-campus-protests-00155140\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">pressed by the Senate<\/a>, he refused to take real action to hold the institutions accountable.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, the so-called student loan forgiveness Cardona&rsquo;s team implemented took <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/media\/document\/impact-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more than $175 billion<\/a> of financial responsibility from 5 million individuals who opted to take out a loan to attend college and moved their debt to taxpayers. That means everyday hard-working Americans who did not attend college will now be saddled with costs others incurred.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\">massively damaging financial aid mishandling<\/a> in higher education doesn&rsquo;t stop there. The FAFSA under Cardona was a major debacle affecting millions of college students. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/08\/07\/us\/politics\/fafsa-delayed-for-second-year.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">According to The New York Times<\/a>, &ldquo;Far from becoming easier, however, the process has been plagued by a steady stream of bugs and data entry issues that locked students out, returned inaccurate aid calculations, and severely tied up the enrollment process.&rdquo; The form release was delayed multiple months, two consecutive years, while Cardona was responsible for it, causing significant problems for students and universities nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Included as part of the celebratory report, a full page is devoted to a picture of someone holding a transgender &ldquo;pride&rdquo; flag. The caption <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.gov\/media\/document\/impact-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reads<\/a>: &ldquo;Staff celebrate the first-ever Pride flag-raising event at the U.S. Department of Education headquarters building.&rdquo; Advancing a &ldquo;sexual orientation and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/is-ai-jesus-a-helpful-tool-or-a-digital-antichrist\/\" title=\"Is AI Jesus A Helpful Tool Or A Digital Antichrist?\">gender identity&#038;rdquo<\/a>; (known as SOGI) agenda has been a driving priority under Cardona&rsquo;s time in office. This is the type of government behavior that led Americans to conclude this administration is out of touch with their concerns and to vote for change.&nbsp;Parents send their children to school to receive instruction in core academic content such as reading, writing, and mathematics, not these radical sexual ideologies.<\/p>\n<p>Better days are ahead for American students as Miguel Cardona&rsquo;s chapter at the Department of Education has finally come to a close.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Dr. Keri D. Ingraham is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute, Director of the American Center for Transforming Education, and a Senior Fellow at Independent Women&rsquo;s Forum.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cardona&#8217;s tenure ends as Trump returns; education suffers greatly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1539,"featured_media":2392591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/President-Biden-Event-Aug-24-2022-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[8049,48848,5152,3735],"class_list":["post-2392590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-accountability","tag-cardona","tag-education","tag-schools"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/President-Biden-Event-Aug-24-2022-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2392590"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2392594,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392590\/revisions\/2392594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2392591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2392590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2392590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2392590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}