Cardona, 45, has also worked as a teacher, principal, and administrator, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee, said he is ”exactly the leader” needed at the Department of Education during “this moment of crisis.” Cardona has “the experience, principles, and perspective that we need in this critical role,” she added.
As education secretary, two of the biggest issues Cardona will face is how to best guide schools as they make plans to reopen and managing the government’s $1.5 trillion student loan portfolio. During his confirmation hearing, Cardona said he will also focus on inequities in the country’s education system, because unless they are “tackled head on,” they will “prevent the potential of this great country.” Catherine Garcia
Ryan notes Biden vowed to make the crown prince’s regime “pay the price” during his presidential campaign. Now, Ryan writes, the president is “facing his first major test of a campaign promise and, it appears, he’s about to fail it.”
“The Biden administration now seems ready to move on while proposing some sanctions falling far short of honoring Biden’s campaign promise to hold Mohammed accountable,” he says. “It appears as though under the Biden administration, despots who offer momentarily strategic value to the United States might be given a ‘one free murder’ pass.”
Wealthy alumni are threatening to pull their donations from the University of Texas at Austin because students have been protesting the university’s controversial alma mater song, The Texas Tribune reports.
“The Eyes of Texas,” which plays after football games, is a cherished tradition for many, but it was historically performed at campus minstrel shows, and the title is linked to a saying from Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Students, therefore, have criticized the song as racist for a while now, the Tribune notes, but action has increased over the last year amid protests against police brutality and racial injustice.
It appears, however, many donors consider the movement to be the product of “cancel culture” and “Marxist ideology,” and emails obtained by the Tribune show they’re willing to pull their financial support for the university over the issue. UT-Austin President Jay Hartzell has publicly confirmed the school will keep the song, but the emails suggest they want him to take an even stronger stand. A few donors even called for Black students to leave the university if they didn’t appreciate the tradition.
“It’s time for you to put the foot down and make it perfectly clear that the heritage of Texas will not be lost,” one donor whose name was redacted wrote to Hartzell. “It is sad that it is offending the blacks. As I said before the blacks are free and it’s time for them to move on to another state where everything is in their favor.”
Larry Wilkinson, a donor and 1970 graduate of UT-Austin, argued in an email to Hartzell and an interview with the Tribune that because Black students make up only 6 percent of the student body, “the tail cannot be allowed to wag the dog … Nothing forces those students to attend UT-Austin.” Read more at The Texas Tribune. Tim O’Donnell
One of the more worrisome bubbles, per Politico, comes in the form of special-purpose acquisition companies, also known as SPACs or “blank check companies.” They exist with the goal of acquiring private companies, generally intriguing startups, and taking them public without having to go through the normal initial public offering process. Larry Kudlow and Wilbur Ross, both former Trump administration officials, are setting up their own SPACs, as is former NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal.
Joseph Brusuelas, the chief economist at at the consulting firm RSM US, said the SPAC bubble, along with cyber assets and gold, feels particularly high-risk. “I mean Shaq has a SPAC,” he told Politico. “What could go wrong?”
Politico also lists the “huge surges” in cryptocurrencies as something that has market watchers concerned. Bitcoin is probably the most famous example in this category, and it’s up 420 percent over the last year, but other cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin, which Politico notes was “created as a joke based on an internet meme,” are also skyrocketing. And the real estate market could be vulnerable, too; data from Realtor.com showed median home listings are up 14.5 percent over the last year, marking the 28th straight week of double-digit price gains.
A recent survey of institutional investors carried about by the investment management firm Natixis seems to back up those fears, since 41 percent expect a market correction in real estate prices, and 39 percent are anticipating corrections for cryptocurrencies. Read more at Politico. Tim O’Donnell
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