Cardona's status quo vision

The American schooling system is and always has been a complete disaster. Unfortunately, most Americans take education for granted. When combined with the abundant pro-schooling propaganda, most of us simply accept the system in place, which was never intended to educate, as the way education must be.

Our schools have not changed in any meaningful way over the course of the last hundred years. Because of how entrenched we are in the conventional model, insignificant changes can seem far more substantial than they really are.

The current secretary of education, Miguel Cardona, has proven himself to be a defender of the status quo. He had already referred to increased funding in existing programs as transformational. More recently, he announced a series of priorities for his office. Each one of these priorities could be described as the latest more-of-the-same solution.

Cardona himself has referred to this as a way to bring about real change. Randi Weingarten, the president of the second largest teachers' union, has insisted that he is reimagining education. Minor tweaks to the existing system hardly qualify as reimagining education.

A Secretary of Education laying out priorities that help all children… calling on us not just to keep schools open for in person learning but to reimagine education to help all our students thrive..@SecCardona #CardonaPriorities pic.twitter.com/ENkkFNQT4M

— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) January 27, 2022

In all fairness to Weingarten, maybe she's just among the mindless masses who take education for granted. Maybe she is completely clueless about how insignificant these proposals really are. Again, there are a lot of people who take education for granted. For that reason, I want to go through each item and explain how Cardona is doing more to protect the status quo than to actually change the system. When I am done, you will probably want to stop hearing about the status quo. You can find this list at the Department of Education's website.

Engaging families as core partners to educators

Technically speaking, this is something that could lead to meaningful change if done properly. Of course, engaging families is far from the same as caring about what they have to say. Also, this is currently just talk rather than actual change. Considering the other items in this list, there's absolutely no reason to believe that there is interest in what families have to say outside the context of the status quo.

Addressing missed instruction through intensive tutoring, extended learning time, and other evidence-based practices

Missed instruction clearly points to a need to get students to the level normally expected of them so they can continue at the level already expected of them in the status quo.

Increasing access to social, emotional, and mental health supports for all students

Teachers have already been talking about social and emotional learning as well as increasing mental health services. These are already part of the system but in lesser forms. This is merely adjusting levels for these ideas rather than addressing the mentally unhealthy aspects of the status quo.

Encouraging every student to participate in at least one extracurricular activity

Extracurricular programs are already a part of the system, and students are already encouraged to participate. Perhaps this is brought up to strengthen the encouragement, but this currently matches the status quo.

Increasing funding for Title I schools and for IDEA in order to close gaps in access to educational opportunity

This is increasing funds into an existing program. There is legitimately nothing new here. It's merely more money into the status quo.

Providing every family the opportunity to start on a level playing field through free, universal pre-K and affordable high-quality child care

There are already Pre-K programs. They may not be universal, but this is again nothing new. I also want to point out that I struggled with inefficiencies in the system. This proposal does not come with increased expectations, resulting in typically two more years of the status quo system to learn the same amount.

Investing in, recruiting, and supporting the professional development of a diverse educator workforce, including special education teachers, paraprofessionals, and bilingual educators so education jobs are ones that people from all backgrounds want to pursue

All of these professions already exist. Increasing diversity, which is far from non-existent already, merely changes how the members of the status quo look. We need changes to what they do more than how they look.

Challenging states and districts to fix broken systems that may perpetuate inequities in our schools

This suggests fixing the status quo rather than pursuing legitimate alternatives.

Providing targeted loan relief to student borrowers

Finances are considered to be one of the biggest obstacles to entering our existing collegiate system, which is merely an extension of the status quo K-12 system with the same approach.

Holding colleges and universities accountable for taking advantage of borrowers

I would want more information before saying too much about this, but it appears that this is focused on how to fund the status quo (again) rather than implement something better.

Ensuring borrowers have loan payment options that reflect their economic circumstances

Yet one more time, Cardona is more concerned with how to fund the status quo than actually fixing anything.

Making long term improvements to programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness and creating a strong Gainful Employment Rule so career programs aren't leaving students with mountains of debt and without good job opportunities

How many times do I have to say this? This is about how to fund the status quo rather than making any meaningful changes.

Reimagining the connection between p-12, higher education, and workforce

Notice that this is looking at the connection rather than the system itself. This would likely result to meaningless tweaks to expectations within the status quo while maintaining the same approach.

Collaborating with the Department of Labor and Department of Commerce to invest in career preparation programs that meet the needs of today's economy

Career preparation programs could mean multiple things. This could be additional curriculum in the status quo system, or it could refer to such things as trade schools, which are essentially additional schools (that already exist) modeled after the status quo system aimed at certain trades.

Prioritizing grant programs that allow students to return to higher education or pursue career and technical education programs at any point in their lives and careers

Let me rephrase this: Prioritizing grant programs that allow students to return to the status quo at any point in their lives and careers

Investing in colleges and universities that serve underrepresented groups and increase access to and funding for programs like Pell Grants

Once again, we return to an idea about how to fund the status quo.