Connecticut education commissioner Miguel Cardona has surged into the national spotlight as President-elect Joe Biden's nominee to lead the U.S. Department of Education. Connecticut Mirror education reporters Jacqueline Rabe Thomas and Adria Watson share insights from covering Cardona’s two-year tenure as the Nutmeg State's top education official, and his years in his hometown of Meriden, where he spent the bulk of his career as a classroom teacher, principal, and administrator. What's been Cardona's strategy for managing COVID-19's impact on students and schools in Connecticut, and how might that inform his approach as U.S. education secretary? How does Cardona’s Puerto Rican heritage, and experience as a former English language learner, influence his approach to education and public policy? Where does he come down on potentially controversial issues like charter schools and school choice? And what’s known about his stance on key higher education issues like student loan debt, given his limited public profile in that realm?