Frederica Freyberg:

On a different front, Biden administration brass traveled through Wisconsin this week.

Miguel Cardona:

Are you going to have a great year?

Students:

Yeah.

Frederica Freyberg:

The U.S. secretary of education, Miguel Cardona, rolled out his return to school road trip with several stops in the state. The tour, designed to highlight students safely returning to in-person learning. The Wisconsin stops included Eau Claire. That’s where high school students that are part of the “NewsHour” Student Reporting Labs got a personal audience with the secretary. Cardona sat down with 17-year-old Kaylee Sweno from Black River Falls High School for an interview.

Kaylee Sweno:

Because of the pandemic, obviously a lot of students are behind in the learning process. How do you plan to catch these students up after missing a year of in-person school?

Miguel Cardona:

Every student I talk to, they’re just happy to be with their friends, that social/emotional piece, right? We talk a lot about the digital divide but the relationship divide is something we have to focus on. So making sure that you have access to fun activities at school and sports or extracurricular activities, that’s just as important as the academic acceleration. We know students lost content so we have to accelerate it but the American Rescue Plan, there was $130 million allocated to states across the country to help and get tutors for students that need it, additional teachers, additional school counselors. So the money is there for extra support. I think in the next year or two you’re going to see a lot more support for students who are feeling a little bit behind either academically or need a little bit of access to social/emotional support, mental health access because we know, we all went through this trauma together.

Woman:

I just don’t think a lot of people know what special education teachers do.

Frederica Freyberg:

Cardona also traveled to UW-Madison, where he met with students in the School of Special Education program, the chancellor and governor. Amid COVID outbreaks in schools and communities, Cardona emphasized the importance of safety protocols like indoor mask requirements to keep schools open.

Secretary Cardona also said this week that he endorses making COVID vaccines mandatory for eligible students. We want to thank Black River Falls High School journalists with the “NewsHour” Student Reporting Lab for sharing their work with us.