Is this the end of Miguel Cardona’s tenure — or the next chapter?

The Biden administration’s public face for reopening schools during the pandemic wants to be remembered for more than the bureaucratic, legal and political mess now confronting his agency.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona's department has lurched from crisis to crisis since President Joe Biden vaulted the Connecticut educator to the highest perch many in his profession could hope to hold.

But he’s run out of time to build a post-pandemic vision that draws absent students back to classrooms, boosts lagging test scores, and reshapes American education. Despite a recent flurry of travel and fiery speeches championing Democratic issues, Cardona's uneven tenure has clouded his prospects to influence the education industry or a potential Harris administration.

“As an educator, if you ever feel like the job is done and you could punch out, you should have been gone a long time ago,” Cardona said in an interview this month inside a Pittsburgh elementary school cafeteria. “I'm never going to be satisfied. The sense of urgency that I have will never be quenched, because there's so much at stake.”

Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump’s education secretary, won attention for blasting teachers unions, rewriting campus sexual misconduct rules and loosening restrictions on for-profit colleges. Arne Duncan exercised a tough-love approach to public school improvement and helped oversee a major rewrite of federal education law under Barack Obama.

Cardona’s track record is more complicated. After pushing to reopen schools with $122 billion in expiring federal aid, the department is scrambling to recover from a botched debut of college financial aid forms that threatens to upend enrollment. Courts have scrapped affirmative action , stymied Biden’s efforts to cancel student loan debt , and blocked rules that extend campus discrimination protections to transgender students. Congressional Republicans have even called for Cardona’s resignation after he declined to condemn pro-Palestinian protest chants on college campuses.

“They’ve been basically in crisis management mode for the majority of the past three and a half years,” Duncan said. “And so having a forward-looking agenda, and a strategy, has been a challenge.”

At the center is Cardona, an educator who hasn’t taken to being a politician.

He deflected questions about his role in a future Democratic administration, saying his current focus is “finishing what the Biden-Harris team set out to do.” But he’s spent the last few weeks traveling to swing states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan to highlight the department’s work and his support for Harris.

Soon after Biden nominated him for the secretary job in 2020, Cardona described American public education as “ a wilted rose. ” He presented a broad agenda to address racial disparities in test scores and graduation rates, fill neglected trade jobs and expand access to free college and early childhood education. The secretary insists the country has made lasting progress.

“A lot of times, administrations come in with a fancy thing and focus only on that and neglect the core of education, which is what I know well,” Cardona said. “So when you talk about improving teacher salaries, that's a gift that keeps giving. When you talk about establishing teacher apprenticeships, that's a gift that keeps giving. That's not going to go away.”

Yet former administration officials who spoke with POLITICO said an overly expansive agenda strained department resources. Biden’s signature ambitions for free preschool and community college failed to launch. Department officials estimate the vast majority of American Rescue Plan money — aid that helped schools pay for safety measures during the pandemic plus tutoring and other needs afterwards — will run out by January . It’s not clear what happens next.

“He’s had to work through the pandemic, which was a huge setback,” said Peter Cunningham, a top aide to Duncan. “But now the money’s drying up. Everyone knows they’re in trouble. School districts are struggling financially. So how do you continue to drive progress in a system — and by that I mean the whole country?”

After graduating from a high school automotive studies program and spending nearly a quarter-century climbing the ladder of Connecticut’s public school system, Cardona can easily strike a charismatic rapport with educators and kids — less so at podiums and congressional hearings.

But the “Raise The Bar” education blueprint he unveiled last year is sometimes criticized for lacking ambition. And he faces pressure from people who want the department to play a bigger role in developing workforce programs.

“The Education Department has to set out a vision where Americans say, ‘Yes, I want that,’” said Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, who did not say whether she supports a second Cardona term.

One former department official, granted anonymity to discuss the secretary’s tenure, compared Cardona’s situation to a builder hired to fix roofs during a hurricane while getting blamed for the storm. People want more from an agency many Republicans – including former President Donald Trump — threaten to shut down.

“I would love to see Secretary Cardona take a much more proactive and bold approach to rebuilding our education system post pandemic,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union, a nonprofit group whose political branch has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. “We are in a critical moment for children in the United States, and that calls for a bold vision and bold leadership.”

Cardona, on the other hand, leans into his professional experience. He spent his career working his way from elementary school teacher to assistant superintendent before a brief stint as the state’s education commissioner.

“Community schools, mental health access, enough reading teachers, enough professional staff, a competitive salary. Those are the things that keep schools going,” Cardona said. “It's about time we have an educator in this office who understands what it's like to be a classroom teacher.”

But as education-related crises accumulated in the Biden administration, critics began to question whether Cardona was ready for the role.

“It was a giant jump, clearly, from where he was in Connecticut to Washington,” said Mark Schneider, a Trump appointee who recently left as head of the department’s independent Institute of Education Sciences statistics and research branch.

The department faced especially embarrassing setbacks with an overhaul of its college financial aid form. The Biden administration spent years implementing a bipartisan law to create a new, simpler application, known as the FAFSA. But a series of glitches, delays and problems with a major contractor plunged the college admissions cycle into chaos.

“It was just a catastrophe. And it was known that it was going to be a catastrophe,” Schneider said. “When it came out, and it crashed and burned repeatedly, that was the single largest point of failure that I can remember in the Department of Education — ever.”

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), head of the House education committee, subpoenaed Cardona this summer to investigate the fiasco after criticizing the department’s “abysmal track record.”

Cardona argues FAFSA “has always been difficult” and the ultimate fix will upgrade decades-old systems for a faster process that sends more scholarship money to students.

Cardona said his administration will focus on higher education in the coming months, challenging lawsuits and legal blockades that halted many of the administration’s plans for student debt relief. The department will also promote “Raise The Bar” initiatives such as expanding teacher apprenticeships and boosting educator salaries .

As the election approaches, the secretary remains defiant — and a bit wistful.

“I'm smart enough to know now that I don't know what tomorrow brings," he said. "What I do know is I feel humbled and blessed to be able to be a part of a team that was bold, that was consequential and that really cared for kids and for our schools and for our educators.”