Yahoo Finance’s Reggie Wade speaks with Miguel Cardona, U.S. Secretary of Education, about the current state of American Education, teacher recruitment, education funding, and much more.

Video Transcript

REGGIE WADE: As schools and campuses continue to welcome back students for in-person instruction, the Department of Education will launch a virtual equity summit series, beginning on June 22. The first installment will focus on how students in underserved communities can access high-quality education that is responsive to their needs. Joining me now is US Education Secretary, Miguel Cardona. Mr. Secretary thank you for joining us.

MIGUEL CARDONA: Glad to be with you. Thanks for having me.

REGGIE WADE: We met back in April at White Plains high school in New York as part of your school reopening tour. On that day I asked you where would you like to see the US education system a year from now, and you said you would love to see the removal of current inequities, to make sure that all students have a chance to succeed. In your mind, have these inequities affected school reopenings? And what do you think are the biggest obta-- obstacles standing in the way of American education?

MIGUEL CARDONA: First of all, thanks for having me here. And of course, you know what we're seeing now is the access to in-person learning is not, it's not even, it's not even. Black, Brown, and Asian students are less likely to be experiencing in-person learning where we know learning happens best. It doesn't mean we can't do it through Zoom, we can't do it digitally. But we know that, that-- for that social emotional well-being and that connection to peers and their teachers it happens best in the classroom.

And we also know that access to mental health support is disproportionate based on race and place, so we have a lot of work to do. We have to really double down our efforts, you know the American Rescue Plan provides funds. In the summer, the summer learning experiences that our students have, we have to make sure we're engaging those families that were difficult to engage for us during this past year. And we have to build confidence that our schools are going to be meeting all students with their academic needs, their emotional and mental health needs, and making sure that our staff feel supported and have the tools at their fingertips so that they could do their jobs.

REGGIE WADE: Mr. Secretary you know that I was a former teacher, so that means I love to talk about teachers. And we know compared to many of their peers, teachers are underpaid and morale has taken a hit due to the pandemic. How is the Department thinking about recruiting teachers and also retaining the workforce that it has?

MIGUEL CARDONA: Yeah, that's a great question, you know. It shouldn't take a pandemic for us to realize how amazing our educators are across the country. You know, and first things first, we have to make sure that they have a seat at the table to talk about what reimagining education looks like. We have to make sure that we're listening to them.

Who better than our teachers, only our parents I would say would know more, but our teachers know their students and what their needs are. So let's make sure let's, let's listen. Let's make sure that we have pipeline programs where we have our paraeducators or our students who are very diverse who want a career in teaching, let's make pipeline programs to get them there. But let's make sure we're paying them adequately.

You know in 30 out of 50 states across the country, a mid-career teacher with a family of four qualifies for federal assistance. That's unacceptable. And we have to make sure we're supporting our teachers in the classroom by providing them support, professional learning opportunities, pathways for job advancement, different options for different career choices. But we also have to make sure we're paying them a salary where they can take care of their families, where they don't have to work jobs on the weekends to make ends meat. They deserve this and we need to give it to them.

REGGIE WADE: Mr. Secretary I want to shift to education funding. The majority of school spending takes place at the state and local levels. Are you worried that some state legislators might not have the capacity to invest sufficiently in American education at this time? And do you fear that this process has become too politicized?

MIGUEL CARDONA: You know I'll take the last one first. We need to make sure we're doing everything to lead with values. We all want our students to recover better than they were before after the pandemic. And I think it's our responsibility as leaders to really focus on what's good for students. How can we improve the outcomes for our students. How can we improve the access for our students, and make sure it's done in an equitable way.

And with regard to the states, we're partnering with our states. There's an influx of federal money here that is different, it is new. So we're working with our states to make sure that it gets into the classrooms as quickly as possible, helping to make sure that-- you know it's going toward the students. Congress passed these bills to make sure that it gets to the students, and our states are partners in this process, we're working with them to make sure it happens.

REGGIE WADE: Yesterday the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights released a report that shows that the achievement gap between students of color and white students cost our economy hundreds of billions of dollars each year. How can we even begin to start fixing that?

MIGUEL CARDONA: Right, it does. You know you either pay now or you pay later. And you know, you're an educator, it costs more to intervene when the damage was done, or when the gaps were created or widened. And I'll tell you right now this pandemic exacerbated gaps.

So this American Rescue Plan, The American Families plan, The American Job plan is intended to address-- to stop the bleeding, address the inequities, and provide programming so that we can close those gaps once and for all. And you know what it means is we're connecting with families better. We're providing better access to social and emotional well-being programs. We're providing access to mental health needs.

We're making sure kids are fed. We're making sure we're addressing homelessness in our students. And we're making sure that the curriculum we put in front of our students is high quality, engaging, and where students of very diverse backgrounds see themselves in the American story. That's critically important in engaging our students, keeping them engaged, raising the bar, and making sure all students have access to high-quality curriculum and are able to provide-- are able to succeed in school wherever they are.

REGGIE WADE: You've been Education Secretary for a few months now, can you share something that has encouraged you during your tenure?

MIGUEL CARDONA: Let me tell you, I met someone in Michigan two days ago. I was in Michigan visiting a community college, I met a lady named Ruth who inspired me. Here's someone who, middle-aged, you know she decided after some health issues of her own. She decided to go back and get a degree to become uh-- to become able to help others who are struggling with health issues. She wants to be able to use her life experience, go back to community college, get a degree, and then work to help others so that they don't go through what she went through.

I'm inspired by the stories of our students, the resilience, the passion. That keeps me going and I know as an educator that's all we need to keep moving because our students deserve the very best. Whether they're four-year-olds in pre-K programs, or middle-aged folks that are going back to college to continue their goals and their dreams.

REGGIE WADE: Secretary Cardona, thank you so much for joining us.