Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the first former teacher to appear on a major party’s presidential ticket in 50 years, brings a long resume on education issues to his new role as vice presidential candidate.
Walz is famous for signing the free school lunch law for all students in the state and helped enact massive budget increases for schools, moves that came decades after he coached a high school football team to a state championship and having helped start his school’s gay-straight alliance.
“He’s a strong advocate for public education, and that probably starts with his identity as a former teacher,” said Dan Hoefrenning, a political science professor at St. Olaf College. “He starts as a teacher, and I think teachers will feel like they have a good, good colleague.”
“I think for teachers, Walz is probably the best there is,” he added.
In the first 24 hours since Vice President Harris announced Walz as his running mate, his team raised about $36 million, his deputy campaign manager saidadding that the main profession among donors were teachers.
Walz graduated from high school in 1982 before enlisting in the Army National Guard. He earned his bachelor’s degree in social science in 1989 and went abroad to teach in China for a year before returning to Minnesota to become a social studies teacher and football coach at Mankato West High School.
“And he oversaw the cafeteria for 20 years,” said the governor said in last month’s X. “You don’t leave this job with a head full of hair. Trust me.”
He was asked to sponsor a gay-straight alliance at school by students in the 1990s, no small request for a rural school at the time.
“It really needed to be the football coach, who was the soldier, who was straight and married,” Walz said, according to the Star Tribune.
It was in Mankato West that he met his now wife, Gwen Whipple.
“They met teaching at the same public school, and education has been a really important part of what the first lady, Gwen Walz, has focused on in her time since Tim Walz became governor,” said Tim Lynch, political scientist. professor at the University of St. Thomas in St. Louis.
“Another thing that I think is worth noting is that they have a son who is still in high school, and their youngest son lives in the local St. Paul public school district. So I think that’s something we don’t always see in national candidates,” Lynch added.
In 2006, Walz ran for the House, winning a Republican-held seat that he held until running for governor in 2018 on the “One Minnesota” platform in an attempt to unite the state’s rural and urban regions.
“During his first term, Walz had a divided government, so it was very difficult to pass things. However, after this last term, more recently, he had a trifecta. And so, just in the last two or three years, he’s actually been able to pass a pretty aggressive, comprehensive agenda, rooted in the idea that he said he wants to make Minnesota the best state in the country for children, and so he’s done a lot of work on that. sense,” said Ryan Dawkins, professor of political science at Carleton College.
In 2022, Walz signed a law granting free school meals to all students in the state. He also increased the state’s education budget by $2.2 billion, a 10% increase.
Other significant victories for the governor included a college financial aid program for families earning less than $80,000 so their school expenses are covered by state institutions and the signing of a READ law on the science of reading.
Republicans have been experimenting with the nickname “Tampon Tim” in response to Walz’s signing of legislation mandating free menstrual products in all public school bathrooms.
Walz’s long record of educational victories has earned him easy support from national teachers unions and education groups.
“The fact that Governor Walz is a fellow teacher makes a huge difference. He understands this. He worked with students, families, parents, and communities, and advocated as a union member. He advocates for the funding, support, and resources our students need, as well as the wages, working conditions, and respect that professionals and educators need. And he did it based on understanding. He truly understands that public education is the foundation of our democracy,” said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association.
When asked what it means to teachers to see one of their own elevated to such a high position, Pringle said, “If you could see me, I’m smiling right now. This is exactly what our teachers, bus drivers, counselors, nurses, and secretaries who work at our school and with our parents every day are doing. I mean, our educators across the country are smiling.”
“We’re ready to go. We’re excited. We’re doing everything we can,” Pringle said. “Three million members, we’re going to make a difference in this election.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
