What’s a road trip with Miguel Cardona like?

Eau Claire was the first stop, and NPR's Cory Turner had a chance to sit down and pick the education secretary's brain. [View this email online]( [NPR]( Tim Gruber for NPR Happy Sunday, Cory here, back from a road trip to Wisconsin with our team producer, Lauren Migaki. Yes, there were fried cheese curds. And an airport full of Packers fans still basking in the glow of their Monday night win over Detroit (or maybe it was just the glow of my cheese curds, not sure). More importantly! The U.S. Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona, was also barnstorming across the state as part of his "Return-to-School Road Trip," talking up the Biden administration's efforts to help children return safely to desks and hopscotch grids many haven't touched in more than a year. We joined Cardona for a visit to an elementary school in Eau Claire, Wis., where he held a pep rally with students in the parking lot and played cowbell along with the local high school marching band. The point of all this choreographed fun: to reassure anxious students, families and educators that classrooms are once again safe — and to celebrate schools that have embraced the secretary's message of universal masking and vaccines for everyone who is eligible. Because beneath this ebullient surface is a strong undertow, fueled by the delta variant. In a sit-down interview later that day, on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Cardona got serious, responding to the politicians and parents who say choices around child masking and vaccination are personal, and should not be forced on anyone. "Schools are communities,” Cardona said. “What an important lesson we need to teach our kids: My actions affect someone else. And unfortunately, it's not the kids that have a hard time with it. It's the adults. The kids are fine." [Click here read — and hear — more from our road trip](. — Cory Turner, NPR Ed Correspondent and Senior Editor News from this week… A federal judge dismissed some of the biggest remaining lawsuits over Ohio State's failure to stop decades-old sexual abuse by now-deceased team doctor Richard Strauss this week. U.S. District Court Judge Michael Watson said it's indisputable Strauss abused hundreds of young men but agreeing with OSU's argument that the legal window for such claims had passed. "For decades, many at Ohio State tasked with protecting and training students and young athletes instead turned a blind eye to Strauss's exploitation," Watson wrote in one ruling. "From 1979 to 2018, Ohio State utterly failed these victims. Plaintiffs beseech this Court to hold Ohio State accountable, but today, the legal system also fails Plaintiffs." [Read more here](. — The Associated Press --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- The U.S. Department of Education announced Thursday that it would send roughly $148,000 to one Florida school district, Alachua County Public Schools, reimbursing it for money that has been withheld by the state. The award is the first under the department's new Project to Support America's Families and Educators (Project SAFE) grant program and the latest salvo in an escalating fight over masking in schools between Florida's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, and President Biden's secretary of education, Miguel Cardona. So far, as a result of defying Florida’s ban of mask mandates in schools, the state has withheld two months of board member salaries. [Read more here](. — Cory Turner, NPR Ed Correspondent and Senior Editor A day after assuming his job, Florida's newly appointed surgeon general on Wednesday signed new protocols allowing parents to decide whether their children should quarantine or stay in school if they are asymptomatic after being exposed to someone who has tested positive for COVID-19. The new guidelines signed by Dr. Joseph Ladapo also tweaked the state's prohibition against school mask mandates, prompting an administrative law judge to dismiss a lawsuit against the old rule that had been filed by various school boards. In terms of quarantine rules, Ladapo eliminated previous mandates requiring students to quarantine for at least four days off-campus if they've been exposed. [Read more here](. — The Associated Press And before you go, a big, new telescope… NASA/Chris Gunn If you’re a science teacher — or just curious about if there is in fact an intergalactic battle happening in space — you’ll be excited to learn that, this December, NASA will launch the most powerful telescope ever put into space. The James Webb Space Telescope will be able to study planets outside our solar system with unparalleled detail — including checking to see if their atmospheres give any indication that a planet is home to life as we know it. [What do you think it will find?]( See you next week. --------------------------------------------------------------- Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Facebook]( [Twitter]( What do you think of today's email? 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