Education chief says music can rebuild connections to school

Nashville, Tenn. (AP) — U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona's household as a child was filled with music. Both his parents were performers, and he and his siblings were their backing band.

“My brother played the guitar and I played percussion. My sister joined in on choruses. We grew up together singing, and music was a huge part of our growing up and our connection to our roots," he said.

But he says in too many school systems, students don't have access to music education or instruments. After two years of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. schools are struggling with teacher shortages in some areas, renewed calls for school security and dramatic setbacks in learning. Cardona believes music education is a part of the solution to rebuilding students and their schools.

“Now as a father, seeing how music teachers have helped my children these last two years, they were high schoolers in the pandemic, and they missed their sense of community,” said Cardona. "And those music teachers know how to reconnect them to community.”