So Minnesota has a governor who really understands what’s going on in the classroom. From the first day in office, he knows first-hand what it takes to be a teacher and how to deal with class sizes, testing, lack of respect, lack of support, job stress, just to mention a few of the daily occurrences. Well, Tim Walz, who was a Mankato teacher for twenty years, will be Minnesota’s Governor. Let’s take a closer look at Tim Walz – Minnesota Governor and Educator.
That was one reason why the Education Community endorsed Tim Walz and state representative Peggy Flanagan, his running mate, for the state’s governor and lieutenant-governor, Tim Walz’ education record.
Tim Walz was both a Mankato High teacher and a serviceman in the U.S. Army National Guard when, in 2004, he took two of his students to hear a speech by President George W. Bush in his hometown of Mankato, Minnesota.
Well, all three of them were actually turned away since one of the students had a wallet with a John Kerry sticker on it. They were ordered to leave though later on, Tim Walz was allowed to attend the meeting but only after some pretty offensive questioning.
Tim Walz thinks of that moment as a very “teachable moment” for everyone. If any campaign worker was able to harass a U.S. Army Sergeant Major who wants to hear his Commander-in-Chief, Tim came to the conclusion that something had to be deeply and profoundly broken in U.S. politics. That very night, Tim Walz committed himself to repair that.
In 2006, just two years after the Bush speech incident, Tim Walz won his first of in total six southern Minnesota races for Congress and he earned a lifetime-lasting “A” grade from the National Education Association, America’s largest education labor union.
Let’s take a look at Tim Walz’s priorities regarding education:
- Full and equitable funding of our schools
- Support and respect for educators
- Closing the opportunity gaps
- Support for universal and standard pre-K
- Prioritizing the funding of education
- Recruiting and/or retaining a higher number of teachers of color
- Blocking of school vouchers
- Providing two years of tuition-free education at state universities and colleges
Tim Walz is “One of US”
For twenty years, Tim Walz was teaching geography at Mankato High and he was also a football coach in the school in the public schools where his wife Gwen is still working. The couple’s two children are also enrolled in the public school system and when the Walzes retire, the family will be depending, like hundreds of thousands other Minnesotans, on a state pension.
Although he has been in Congress since the year 2006, Tim Walz still possesses an educator’s work ethic and highly appreciates authentic and genuine relationships. If you’ll watch him deliver a speech or give an interview, you can immediately tell he’s been spending decades of his professional life presenting and delivering lesson plans to young students. Tim additionally supports many veteran’s advocacy organizations that work so hard for the interests of the people that fight to protect our freedom and way of life.
Just like many other educators today, Tim Walz was a classroom teacher during the days of the Pawlenty administration. Tim very well remembers all the devastating layoffs, budget cuts, rising class sizes, and the support services rollbacks of those days and if one thing is for sure, it is that Tim Walz will never allow that to happen again!
As the teachers said: “Tim Walz is One of Us”. That’s why he got the support of the Teaching Community in the August 2018 DFL primary election as well as the general election in November 2018. Teachers were overheard saying that they might never have one more chance to support a candidate like Tim Walz.