Education Secretary Cardona blasts 'misbehaving' parents
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Friday addressed the state of public schools and education in the U.S. in an interview with the Associated Press.
Oklahoma state superintendent Ryan Walters called on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to resign in a statement posted on social media in response to the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results.
The exam, according to Walters, compares the academic performance of students in the U.S. against those in other countries. Walters, in a post on X, wrote that Cardona "only wants to indoctrinate and not educate."
He added that the education secretary should "resign immediately."
"Joe Biden and the Democrats have dialed out kids," Walters said in a statement. "They have put America on a path of decline. Their school closures and anti-parent policies have resulted in a dramatic decline in our math scores and left America in a weakened position internationally."
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C., Aug. 8, 2022. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
Walters criticized Cardona for claiming "success" when "kids are falling behind so badly."
"In light of his latest failure of leadership, he should resign immediately to make way for someone who knows the difference between student success and self-serving Washington spin," he said.
Walters, an outspoken critic of Critical Race Theory (CRT), told Fox News Digital in November that he sent a letter to textbook companies warning that they would be checking for it in books.
"I sent out a letter to all textbook companies involved with the state and say, Listen, we will be checking for these things now. Do not give us textbooks that have critical race theory in them," he said.
Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters speaks during a special state Board of Education meeting discuss to the U.S. Department of Education's "Proposed Change to its Title IX Regulations on Students' Eligibility for Athletic Teams," April 12, 2023, in Oklahoma City. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File) (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
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"And if a vendor cannot produce textbooks that actually help our students understand math and understand better science, well, then they can go somewhere else. We've got plenty to choose from, and I know that there's going to be plenty of folks that are able to get us great materials for our schools," Walters added.
During an interview with The Associated Press in September, Cardona criticized people who are "misbehaving in public" and "acting like they know what's right for kids."
"There was civility. We could disagree. We could have healthy conversations around what’s best for kids," he said. "I respect differences of opinion. I don’t have too much respect for people that are misbehaving in public and then acting like they know what’s right for kids."
President Joe Biden with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, right, on Aug. 24, 2022 in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. (OLIVIER DOULIERY/AFP via Getty Images)
Cardona, responding to the PISA results on Tuesday, said, "there's much work to be done."
The results found that U.S. students were behind in math compared to their counterparts in other countries.
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Fox News' Kristine Parks contributed to this report.