蜜桃影视

Explore

EDlection2018: Minnesota鈥檚 Governor-Elect Tim Walz, a Former Teacher, Campaigned on the Most Traditional of Democratic Education Platforms

Rep. Tim Walz (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

EDlection2018: This is one of several dozen races聽we’ve analyzed for the 2018 midterms聽that could go on to influence state or federal education policy. Get the latest headlines delivered straight to your inbox; sign up for聽蜜桃影视 Newsletter.

After a dozen years representing southeast Minnesota in Congress, Tim Walz is moving into the governor鈥檚 mansion. If anything, he promises to be even more of a traditional Democratic-Farmer-Labor leader in terms of education than outgoing Gov. Mark Dayton, whose administration blocked numerous centrist efforts to push schools to close some of the largest racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps in the nation.

鈥淚 am labor, I stand with labor, and as governor, I will keep Minnesota a labor state,鈥 he pronounced on multiple occasions, sometimes accompanied by the hashtag #WalzOrWisconsin, a jab at Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.


It’s perhaps not surprising, then, that Walz鈥檚 frontline education platform jibes with the positions of Education Minnesota, the state鈥檚 merged affiliate of both the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers. He has called for more state funding for schools, more school support personnel such as counselors and nurses and universal preschool, something Dayton pushed relentlessly versus the pre-K funding targeted to low-income children most early childhood education leaders pushed for.

Though not on the stump, Walz has also called for innovations in science, technology, engineering and math instruction, personalized learning, high school redesign and the diversification of Minnesota鈥檚 teacher corps, which is 96 percent white. Whether the somewhat different agendas can be explained by Democrats鈥 universal need to get their left flank to the polls remains to be seen.

Walz spent 24 years in the National Guard and 20 as a teacher and coach, a career trajectory launched by a stint in the classroom on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

(Check out what鈥檚 going on in governor鈥檚 races across the country on 蜜桃影视鈥檚 liveblog.)

Walz鈥檚 challenger, one-term state lawmaker Jeff Johnson, called for a laundry list of changes in education topped by 鈥渟implified鈥 school funding. Johnson said he would push to reform the state鈥檚 Board of Teaching, despite the fact that it was dissolved at the beginning of the year after a decade of efforts to overhaul teacher licensure.


Criss-crossing the state in Paul Bunyan鈥檚 lumberjack flannels, Walz was boosted by his charismatic running mate Peggy Flanagan, a former state lawmaker who has the distinction of being both the youngest person ever elected to the Minneapolis School Board and the first Native American. The former head of the state鈥檚 branch of the Children鈥檚 Defense Fund, she has long advocated for equity in services for Minnesota children.

Johnson鈥檚 running mate, Donna Bergstrom, is also Native American.

As of midnight EST, with 67 percent of precincts reporting, Walz had captured 55 percent of the vote to Johnson鈥檚 42 percent.

EDlection2018: This is one of several dozen races聽we’ve analyzed for the 2018 midterms聽that could go on to influence state or federal education policy. Get the latest headlines delivered straight to your inbox; sign up for聽蜜桃影视 Newsletter.

Did you use this article in your work?

We鈥檇 love to hear how 蜜桃影视鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.

Republish This Article

We want our stories to be shared as widely as possible 鈥 for free.

Please view 蜜桃影视's republishing terms.





On 蜜桃影视 Today