Secretary of Education visits Hampton’s schools, wants to ‘try to replicate’ Bethel’s classroom models ‘across the country’

U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona spent the afternoon in Hampton on Monday, speaking with high school and college students and education leaders.

Cardona visited Bethel High School and Hampton University with U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott and spoke about the importance of creating college and career pathways for students.

“I was brought here to see a great example that I can maybe try to replicate across the country,” Cardona told a class of freshman students at Bethel.

Bethel is home to several of Hampton City Schools’ academies, including health science, law and public safety and media arts and design. The school division’s high school academies are designed as a way to provide career-focused smaller learning communities.

Cardona stepped into a criminal justice classroom, where students were processing a mock crime scene. He also dropped in on a “trial” that was happening inside a classroom set up as a courtroom.

At the end of his visit, Cardona said he’d like to see what is happening at Bethel recreated across the country.

“We have pathways for students with highly engaging instruction, caring individuals and a school that has a positive climate,” he said. “These students have access to careers and pathways to college.”

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Cardona said “a tsunami of jobs” is coming thanks to numerous bipartisan efforts.

“Our education system is feeding all those careers,” he said.

City and school leaders from Hampton and Newport News, as well as university and college leaders from across Hampton Roads, attended the two roundtable events with Cardona and Scott. They outlined some of the successes seen in their institutions, as well as challenges they face, including in teacher recruitment and retention at the K-12 level and affordability for higher education.

During his visit to Hampton University, Cardona said he has seen education change in significant ways as people across the country fought COVID-19.

“For the next three years, let’s fight complacency,” he said, adding that schools and universities should strive to be better than they were before the pandemic.

During his comments to educators, Scott lamented the time and focus spent on “culture wars,” such as book bans and “what bathroom people should go to.” He said the focus should be on the real challenges that schools continue to face, such as the achievement gap.

Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com