[8] Cardona was raised in a housing project in Meriden and graduated from the H.C. Wilcox Technical High School, where he was a part of the automotive studies program.

[12][13] Cardona's dissertation, titled Sharpening the Focus of Political Will to Address Achievement Disparities, studied the gaps between English-language learners and their classmates.

[12][11] During his tenure, Cardona helped oversee state schools' response to the COVID-19 pandemic, where he expressed concerns over the long-term mental health impacts of remote education on students.

[8] In December 2020, Cardona emerged as a candidate for United States secretary of education in Joe Biden's cabinet.

Biden began to lean toward Cardona over two other "high-profile" teachers' union leaders, Lily Eskelsen García and Randi Weingarten.

"[17][18] Cardona was brought to the attention of Biden by Linda Darling-Hammond, the leader of the transition's education secretary search efforts, a role she also filled for Barack Obama in 2008.

[23] The administration's most sweeping attempt to do so, which would have forgiven about $430 billion in student loan principles, was struck down by the Supreme Court on June 30, 2023, in Biden v.

[24] Since the Biden v. Nebraska decision, Cardona has announced a series of smaller and more targeted student loan forgiveness programs, and the Department of Education has reemphasized the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to reduce the student debt of people working full-time in public service.

[27] In December 2023, simplified Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms were released after a two-month delay.

[29] On April 26, the Education Department announced that the top official in charge of federal financial student aid would step down.