Governor Tim Walz: A Champion for Public Education
Democratic presidential contender Kamala Harris has tapped Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her vice presidential pick. Now public education advocates around the country are celebrating Walz’s K-12 record and shared vision for supporting public schools that are under attack by his opposition.
Education advocates across the US are celebrating Kamala Harris’ Democratic nominee for vice president — a high school social studies teacher and football coach who has championed and passed tremendous pro-public education policies as governor of Minnesota.
Walz: A Pro-Public Education, Pro-Student Governor
After serving six terms in Congress, Walz ran for governor of Minnesota in 2018, winning by a double-digit margin, and was reelected in 2022. As governor, he forged a reputation as someone who makes good policy happen — especially when it comes to public schools.
In 2023 he signed a law guaranteeing free breakfast and lunch to all Minnesota students, ensuring no child will have to learn on an empty stomach. Minnesota was the fourth state to offer universal school lunch to all students, and an early adopter of a policy that has become a growing national trend. Asked whether the policy made him too progressive, Walz joked sarcastically, “What a monster. Kids are eating, eating and having full bellies so they can go learn… if that’s where they want to label me, I’m more than happy to take the label.”
Last year, the Minnesota governor’s sweeping education-focused budget gave Minnesota K-12 schools a major funding boost, funded unemployment benefits for hourly school employees during summer when schools are closed, and aimed to reduce childhood hunger and poverty by continuing a lapsed federal policy, a $1,750 per-child low-income tax credit. Walz was purposeful about putting the state’s $17.5 billion surplus to work, saying, “We’re going to put it behind our teachers so we can educate our children.”
Walz also signed into law a financial aid program giving free college tuition to students whose families earn less than $80,000 a year. The program provides scholarships to close gaps between students’ financial aid packages and the actual cost of attendance. The law had such an impact that North Dakota State University, fearing competition, began offering the same incentive.
Taking Strong Public-School Values to the White House
In the interview that kicked off the trend of calling MAGA ideas “weird,” Walz described “strong public schools” as a “shared value” for Americans while decrying book bans. “Who’s asking for this crazy stuff?… Who’s sitting in a bar in Racine, Wisconsin, saying, ‘You know what we really need? We need to ban “Animal Farm.”’ Nobody is!”
For Walz, this year’s presidential campaign is remarkable for the same “excitement in the air” that the start of a new school year brings, he said in a video posted last Wednesday. “As a football coach, we’re back on offense… so get out there, feel the excitement, get engaged.”
Big Lunchroom Monitor Energy
Walz’s relatable everyman image is bolstered by a seemingly innate ability to poke fun at himself. When one Twitter post compared Walz’s appearance unfavorably to Harris’ by asking “how on earth are these two people the same age,” another poster responded, “Because Tim Walz taught high school. Trust me.” Walz joined in the joke, adding: “And supervised the lunchroom for 20 years. You do not leave that job with a full head of hair. Trust me.”
A "Passionate, Upbeat" Small-Town Teacher
It’s not every day that a public school teacher ends up in the mix for a presidential ticket. But, as one former student of Walz told the Washington Post, “Darn right he’s on that list. Absolutely he should be!”
Walz credits his rural upbringing for his values: “A town that small had services like that and had a public school with a government teacher that inspired me to be sitting where I’m at today. Those are real stories in small towns.”
Walz taught high school in Nebraska, where he also coached junior high girls’ basketball, before moving to rural Minnesota to become a history teacher and football coach at Mankato West High. His wife, Gwen, is a lifelong educator who also taught at the school before becoming a district administrator.
Former students and teaching colleagues describe Walz as passionate and upbeat, with an infectious love of history. As a teacher, he hosted “Jeopardy!”-style tournaments and invited other teachers to debate him on current events.
An Example and Lifeline for All Students
Walz also coached the school’s football team, helping turn a winless squad into state champions while earning his players’ trust. “I don’t want to be dramatic about it, but he maybe saved my life,” said one former linebacker who says he hung out with the wrong crowd before Walz showed him care on and off the field that he’d never experienced from a teacher before.
He also offered to serve as the first faculty adviser to his high school’s newly formed gay-straight alliance in the mid-1990s. The first openly gay student at Mankato West High described the importance and impact of that decision: “The fact that he took on that role while also being the football coach was so important. He set an example not just for LGTBQ students but for football players in the locker room at a time where gay people were not well understood. He made the school a safe place for everybody.”
Walz also coached the school’s football team, helping turn a winless squad into state champions while earning his players’ trust. “I don’t want to be dramatic about it, but he maybe saved my life,” said one former linebacker who says he hung out with the wrong crowd before Walz showed him care on and off the field that he’d never experienced from a teacher before.
He also offered to serve as the first faculty adviser to his high school’s newly formed gay-straight alliance in the mid-1990s. The first openly gay student at Mankato West High described the importance and impact of that decision: “The fact that he took on that role while also being the football coach was so important. He set an example not just for LGTBQ students but for football players in the locker room at a time where gay people were not well understood. He made the school a safe place for everybody.”
From Classroom to Congress
Walz was elected to the US House of Representatives straight from his teaching position in 2006. He flipped a Republican seat in a rural part of the state — a conservative-leaning rural district that, both before and after his tenure, has been mostly dominated by Republicans. Walz said he was inspired to run after he took a group of high school students to a George W. Bush campaign rally and security questioned some of his students about their politics because they saw a John Kerry sticker on one of the students’ wallets.
As a congressman, Walz championed pro-public education ideas, repeatedly introducing bills to fully fund IDEA for students with disabilities, expand nondiscrimination policy to include sexual orientation and gender identity (a right the Supreme Court ruled on in 2020), and implement grant funding for teacher retention programs.
Shortly after starting his first term, Walz said campaigning was a lot like teaching. “The biggest thing is communicating an idea. It’s trying to get people to be involved and to look at the facts… Teaching is the same way. You’re trying to present a system of facts; you’re trying to teach students what’s the best way to think about problems to solve them in a rational way.”
Walz’s strong relationships in Congress prompted a campaign of “quiet diplomacy” that saw dozens of House members advocating, both publicly and privately, for Harris to select him as VP. As one veteran Congressman said, “People like me think the world of him. A truly great human being.”
Public Education is On the Presidential Ballot
Trump and Project 2025 drew the battle lines when they attacked public education and proposed universal school vouchers designed to decimate local public schools. The vision Harris and Walz have for America and moving public schools forward couldn’t differ more.