By Brid­get Brons­don
UConn Jour­nal­ism 

Two Con­necti­cut res­i­dents, two sec­re­taries of edu­ca­tion, two very dif­fer­ent paths.  

Miguel Car­dona, a Meri­den native, and Lin­da McMa­hon of Green­wich have both made the jour­ney from Con­necti­cut to Wash­ing­ton, D.C. to serve as U.S. Sec­re­tary of Edu­ca­tion.  

Car­dona, who served under for­mer Pres­i­dent Joe Biden, and McMa­hon, who cur­rent­ly serves under Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, have very dif­fer­ent back­grounds, expe­ri­ences and goals for the future of edu­ca­tion.  

Miguel Car­dona  

Miguel Car­dona served as the U.S. Sec­re­tary of Edu­ca­tion from March 2021 to Jan­u­ary 2025 under for­mer Pres­i­dent Joe Biden.  

Cardona’s term focused on root­ing edu­ca­tion in equi­ty and acces­si­bil­i­ty, ensur­ing afford­abil­i­ty in high­er-edu­ca­tion and expand­ing sup­port ser­vices, such as men­tal health pro­grams for stu­dents and edu­ca­tors. Car­dona also spear­head­ed the Raise the Bar ini­tia­tive, aimed at strength­en­ing stu­dent achieve­ment, diver­si­fy­ing career oppor­tu­ni­ties and mul­ti­lin­gual edu­ca­tion, and ensur­ing acces­si­bil­i­ty in high­er edu­ca­tion.  

A first-gen­er­a­tion col­lege stu­dent and Span­ish and Eng­lish speak­er, Car­dona has been out­spo­ken in his advo­ca­cy for mul­ti­lin­gual­ism in schools and equal access to edu­ca­tion regard­less of income, gen­der or race.  

Dur­ing his term, Car­dona facil­i­tat­ed the addi­tion of 16,000 men­tal health experts in schools across the coun­try and over­saw over $175 bil­lion in col­lege debt relief to approx­i­mate­ly 5 mil­lion peo­ple.  

Born in Meri­den, Car­dona received his bachelor’s degree in edu­ca­tion from Cen­tral Con­necti­cut State Uni­ver­si­ty. He lat­er earned a mas­ter’s degree in bilin­gual and bicul­tur­al edu­ca­tion and a doc­tor­al degree in edu­ca­tion from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Con­necti­cut.  

Car­dona began his career teach­ing fourth grade at Israel Put­nam Ele­men­tary School in Meri­den, in the same school dis­trict he attend­ed as a child. After five years in the class­room, Car­dona was pro­mot­ed to prin­ci­pal for Meriden’s Hanover Ele­men­tary School, mak­ing him Connecticut’s youngest prin­ci­pal at 28 years old. In 2012, Car­dona was award­ed the Nation­al Dis­tin­guished Prin­ci­pal Award for Con­necti­cut and the Out­stand­ing Admin­is­tra­tor Award from the same uni­ver­si­ty he received his mas­ter’s and doc­tor­al degrees from, the UConn Neag School of Edu­ca­tion.  

Car­dona then took on an admin­is­tra­tive role as Meriden’s dis­trict per­for­mance and eval­u­a­tion spe­cial­ist in 2013. In 2019, Car­dona became the Con­necti­cut Com­mis­sion­er of Edu­ca­tion.  

As Com­mis­sion­er, Car­dona cham­pi­oned the reopen­ing of Con­necti­cut schools dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. He also focused on bridg­ing the dig­i­tal divide, lead­ing Con­necti­cut to be the first state in the coun­try that pro­vid­ed lap­tops and inter­net ser­vices for pub­lic school stu­dents dur­ing the pan­dem­ic to ensure suc­cess­ful remote learn­ing.  

Car­dona in his own words  

• Car­dona on the impor­tance of high­er edu­ca­tion: “I am liv­ing proof that expand­ing access to high­er edu­ca­tion opens doors. I wouldn’t be here today as Sec­re­tary of Edu­ca­tion with­out the oppor­tu­ni­ties high­er edu­ca­tion opened for me. That’s why I’m fight­ing to make high­er edu­ca­tion acces­si­ble for ALL our stu­dents,” he said in a 2024 Insta­gram post.  

• Car­dona on bilin­gual­ism: “It is because of the bilin­gual edu­ca­tors I have been blessed to serve along­side that I often remind our stu­dents that their bilin­gual­ism and their bicul­tur­al­ism is their super­pow­er,” he said dur­ing the 2022 Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion for Bilin­gual Edu­ca­tors con­fer­ence.  

• Car­dona on the Depart­ment of Education’s goals fol­low­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic:  “Let’s not just talk about hon­or­ing edu­ca­tors; let’s make sure they are treat­ed with the respect and the dig­ni­ty they deserve,” he said in a Jan­u­ary 2022 speech. “This means a liv­able wage, it means ongo­ing pro­fes­sion­al learn­ing and devel­op­ment, sup­port­ive work­ing con­di­tions and a work envi­ron­ment where their voic­es are wel­come as crit­i­cal part­ners in our work to improve edu­ca­tion.” 

• Car­dona on LGBTQ+ stu­dents and stu­dents of col­or: “There is a tox­ic dis­re­spect from dem­a­gogues who attack the safe­ty and belong­ing of LGBTQI+ stu­dents and stu­dents of col­or, ban­ning books and white­wash­ing our his­to­ry,” he said in his 2023 address to the Nation­al Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Assem­bly.  

• Car­dona on the nor­mal­iza­tion of dis­par­i­ties: “We all suc­ceed when every group suc­ceeds. How­ev­er, we’ve nor­mal­ized dis­par­i­ties in access and out­comes, espe­cial­ly between black and brown stu­dents, and indige­nous stu­dents, and we’ve nor­mal­ized it. It’s busi­ness as usu­al. We need to main­tain a sense of urgency,” he said in a Sep­tem­ber 2025 Latine Com­mu­ni­ty Q&A ses­sion at the UConn Dodd Cen­ter for Human­Rights.  

• Car­dona on one piece of advice he’d give to stu­dents today: “That we have more in com­mon with each oth­er than we have dif­fer­ent from each oth­er. We’re only here for a lit­tle bit of time, and you know, my lived expe­ri­ence tells me that the more you can do for oth­ers, the bet­ter you’re going to feel. So, if you could find com­mon­al­i­ties, if you could find com­mon ground, there’s a greater like­li­hood, you could do good — not only for your neigh­bor, but for the coun­try,” he said in a Sep­tem­ber 2025 Latine Com­mu­ni­ty Q&A ses­sion at the UConn Dodd Cen­ter for Human Rights. 

Lin­da McMa­hon 

Lin­da McMa­hon was appoint­ed U.S. Sec­re­tary of Edu­ca­tion by Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump in March 2025. Her goals include refo­cus­ing edu­ca­tion on “math, read­ing, sci­ence, and history—not divi­sive DEI pro­grams and gen­der ide­ol­o­gy,” giv­ing par­ents more con­trol over stu­dents’ edu­ca­tion and ensur­ing post­sec­ondary edu­ca­tion pro­vides a path to a well-pay­ing career. 

McMa­hon is also focused on dis­solv­ing her own agency, the Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion, to cede con­trol of edu­ca­tion to the state and local lev­el. She has also aligned her­self with Make Amer­i­ca Great Again pri­or­i­ties around “school choice” that shifts pub­lic dol­lars to pri­vate schools.   

McMa­hon was born in New Bern, North Car­oli­na and grad­u­at­ed from East Car­oli­na Uni­ver­si­ty with a degree in French. 

McMa­hon had a career in busi­ness and enter­tain­ment as the co-founder and CEO of World Wrestling Enter­tain­ment. McMa­hon played a large role in grow­ing the WWE with her hus­band, Vince McMa­hon, from an enter­tain­ment busi­ness to a glob­al enter­prise. The com­pa­ny was known for stag­ing fake, soap opera-like wrestling match­es and skits, some of which both McMa­hons par­tic­i­pat­ed in, por­tray­ing themes of adul­tery and vio­lence. Trump attend­ed the per­for­mances as a reg­u­lar guest and fre­quent­ly par­tic­i­pat­ed in the skits. Trump was induct­ed into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2013.  

McMa­hon left the WWE in 2009 and served on the Con­necti­cut State Board of Edu­ca­tion for a year. She also served from 2004–2017 on the Sacred Heart Uni­ver­si­ty Board of Trustees.  

The Green­wich res­i­dent ran for U.S. Sen­ate in 2010 and 2012, los­ing to Democ­rats Richard Blu­men­thal and Chris Mur­phy, respec­tive­ly. 

McMa­hon is a long­time Trump ally and served in his cab­i­net as the admin­is­tra­tor of the U.S. Small Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion from 2017 to 2019. She stepped down to serve as the chair­per­son of Amer­i­ca First Action, a Pro-Trump super polit­i­cal action com­mit­tee. McMa­hon also chaired the board for the con­ser­v­a­tive think tank Amer­i­ca First Pol­i­cy Insti­tute.  

McMa­hon in her own words  

• McMa­hon on the dec­i­ma­tion of the fed­er­al Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion: “Today’s reduc­tion in force reflects the Depart­ment of Education’s com­mit­ment to effi­cien­cy, account­abil­i­ty, and ensur­ing that resources are direct­ed where they mat­ter most: to stu­dents, par­ents, and teach­ers,” she said in a March 2025 press release regard­ing the department’s cut­backs.  

• McMa­hon when asked if teach­ing an African Amer­i­can stud­ies course would vio­late the Trump admin­is­tra­tion’s DEI poli­cies: “I do not think that African stud­ies or Mid­dle East stud­ies or Chi­nese stud­ies are part of DEI if they are taught as part of the total his­to­ry pack­age,” she said. “If you’re giv­ing the facts on both sides, of course they’re not DEI.” 

• McMa­hon on the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment shut­down and the U.S. Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion: “Two weeks in, mil­lions of Amer­i­can stu­dents are still going to school, teach­ers are get­ting paid, and schools are oper­at­ing as nor­mal. It con­firms what the Pres­i­dent has said: the fed­er­al Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion is unnec­es­sary, and we should return edu­ca­tion to the states,” she said in Octo­ber 2025 on the social media plat­form X.   

• McMa­hon on the impor­tance of patri­ot­ic edu­ca­tion: “In the Amer­i­can sys­tem, edu­cat­ed cit­i­zens who know their rights and embrace their respon­si­bil­i­ties coop­er­ate to build a more per­fect Union,” she said. “It is imper­a­tive to pro­mote an edu­ca­tion sys­tem that teach­es future gen­er­a­tions hon­est­ly about America’s Found­ing prin­ci­ples, polit­i­cal insti­tu­tions, and rich his­to­ry. To tru­ly under­stand Amer­i­can val­ues, the tire­less work it has tak­en to live up to them, and this country’s excep­tion­al place in world his­to­ry is the best way to inspire an informed patri­o­tism and love of coun­try,” she said in a Sep­tem­ber U.S. Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion press release.  

• McMa­hon on the Trump administration’s goals to improve edu­ca­tion and stu­dent oppor­tu­ni­ty: “We want to make edu­ca­tion bet­ter for chil­dren. The pres­i­dent is an absolute pro­po­nent of school choice, and we are going to work very hard to make sure that chil­dren are not held pris­on­er in fail­ing schools,” she said in March 2025 on Fox News.