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This article is part of 麻豆精品鈥檚 EDlection 2024 coverage, which takes a look at candidates鈥� education policies and how they might impact the American education system after the 2024 election.

Updated

Kamala Harris鈥� new running mate is an unabashedly progressive midwestern governor who appeals to veterans, hunters and football fans. If elected, he鈥檇 also be the first K-12 educator since Lyndon Johnson to be vice president, boasting the deepest connection to public schools of any candidate in recent memory.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is a former high school teacher and football coach who enacted a free college tuition program and expanded free school lunch statewide. But Walz, 60, a former congressional lawmaker who is in his second term as governor, may also carry left-of-center baggage that weighs down the ticket in a tight presidential race, observers said.

Walz rose to prominence earlier this year by informally leading Democrats鈥� turn to calling Republicans 鈥渨eird,鈥� suggesting in interviews that they鈥檙e out of touch and relying on culture-war fodder instead of issues Americans care about. 

Tim Walz first year as a high school football coach and geography teacher

鈥� Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE)

鈥淲ho鈥檚 sitting in a bar in Racine, Wisconsin, saying, 鈥榊ou know what we really need? We need to ban 鈥淎nimal Farm.鈥濃�� Nobody is!鈥� Walz with MSNBC.

In a introducing himself released by the campaign Tuesday, Walz described the 鈥渟mall-town鈥� values he learned growing up in Nebraska and later tried to instill in his students: 鈥渞espect, compromise, service to country. And so when I went into government, that’s what I carried with me.鈥�

Harris echoed those themes in a speech at Temple University in Philadelphia Tuesday evening, calling him 鈥渢he kind of teacher and mentor that every child in America dreams of having and that every kid deserves.鈥�

As governor, Walz put forward an education agenda that unions have cheered, signing a nearly state budget last year that significantly increased funding for the state鈥檚 public schools. He also signed into law a new $1,750-per-child tax credit that he said will help reduce childhood poverty.

Walz enacted for Minnesota families earning less than $80,000 per year. Analysts predict it鈥檒l cost the state around $117 million in fiscal year 2025 and $49.5 million annually after that.

With a $17.5 billion budget surplus last year, Walz promised 鈥渢o put it behind our teachers so we can educate our children.”

Despite the 鈥渉istoric鈥� spending, school districts throughout Minnesota last spring were facing massive cuts, the one-two punch of the end of COVID recovery aid and enrollment losses. 

The state鈥檚 second-largest district, St. Paul Public Schools, projects a $150 million deficit for the 2024-25 academic year. Minneapolis Public Schools anticipates a $116 million shortfall. And even the most prosperous Twin Cities suburbs must explain the disconnect to families who moved there for their well-funded schools.

Free lunch for all

Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard after high school and attended Chadron State College. He earned a social science degree in 1989, and spent a year in one of the first government-sanctioned groups of American educators to teach in China.

Walz went on to serve full time in the Army National Guard, retiring in 2005 as a command sergeant major. 

He and his wife, Gwen, met while teaching in Nebraska. They worked together at Mankato, Minn., West High School, where he taught social studies and coached football. She taught English and later served as a district administrator. 

Former colleagues said the couple were powerhouse teachers who balanced out each other鈥檚 energy-levels. He was animated, they . She was more reserved.

鈥淗e came in very outgoing, very gregarious,鈥� former social studies teacher Pat Griffiths told The Post. 鈥淚f there were 100 people in a room and 99 loved him, he would work on the one who didn鈥檛 until they did too.鈥�

Another colleague told of a prank that a group of teachers played on Walz during his first semester there: They printed out a fake gift certificate for a free turkey as a bogus 鈥渨elcome gift,鈥� to be collected at a local grocery store. 

Walz returned to school with the turkey. 

In 2006, he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating a Republican incumbent in Minnesota鈥檚 rural First District, which typically leans Republican. He served six terms before being elected governor in 2018.

These days, Walz is widely known on the national stage for last year鈥檚 Minnesota Free School Meals law, which made school breakfast and lunch free for all students, regardless of income. It made Minnesota the fourth state to do so after California, Colorado and Maine. Currently, offer free meals to all students.

At the time, Walz said the measure 鈥減uts us one step closer to making Minnesota the best state for kids to grow up.鈥�

During debate on the bill in March 2023, state Sen. Steve Drazkowski, a Republican, questioned whether food insecurity was even an issue in the state, saying, 鈥淚 have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that is hungry. I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that says they don鈥檛 have access to enough food to eat.鈥�

A video of his speech went viral, garnering on X and plenty of criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike.

Recent coverage suggests that though the program is popular and the state鈥檚 surplus helps keep it afloat, the free-meals program than expected: an extra $81 million over the next two years and $95 million in the two years after that.

Walz has also criticized education savings accounts, saying they don鈥檛 help rural areas. Support for these accounts, championed by conservatives, may have hurt Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro鈥檚 prospects to become Harris鈥� running mate. 

A lifelong hunter, Walz shifted substantially on gun safety, moving from an 鈥淎鈥� rating from the National Rifle Association in 2016 to endorsing an assault weapons ban after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. At the time, Walz said his then-17-year-old daughter asked him to do more on gun safety. He donated his NRA contributions to charity.

The move turned his rating to 鈥渟traight F’s,鈥� . 鈥淎nd I sleep just fine.鈥�

On Tuesday, after word leaked about Harris picking Walz, gun safety activist and Parkland survivor David Hogg on X, 鈥淚鈥檓 smiling a mile wide right now.鈥� 

Extreme or Norman Rockwell?

Policies like these have earned Walz endorsements on the left 鈥� American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on Tuesday called him 鈥渁n unabashed champion for public education, for educators and workers.鈥� 

It also doesn鈥檛 hurt that Mary Cathryn Ricker, Walz鈥檚 first state education commissioner, was a former AFT vice president. Before that, she led the St. Paul Federation of Teachers.

At Temple University Tuesday evening, Walz spoke of his 20-year career as a teacher and his wife鈥檚 29-year tenure, saying, 鈥淒on鈥檛 ever underestimate teachers.鈥�

Walz鈥檚 career nearly derailed when he was pulled over in a drunk driving incident as a 31-year-old teacher in Nebraska. As the reported, he was stopped for driving 96 mph in a 55-mph zone. He failed a field sobriety test, but later pleaded guilty to reckless driving, a misdemeanor. He left the state in 1996, when he continued teaching and coaching football in Mankato.

Invoking his time as a coach there, Harris said he was a role model 鈥� on and off the field. She recounted the story of one of the first openly gay students at Walz鈥檚 school, who sought to start a gay-straight alliance 鈥渁t a time when acceptance was difficult to find.鈥�

Harris said Walz 鈥渒new the signal that it would send to have a football coach get involved. So he signed up to be the group’s faculty advisor. And as students have said, he made the school a safe place for everybody.鈥�

But in a tight race, Walz’s progressive credentials could spell trouble for Harris, said Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative .

Hess called the Walz pick 鈥渁n odd choice鈥� in a race in which Harris already has teachers鈥� union backing but needs to shore up support among independents and conservatives. He suggested that Shapiro might have been a better match for those constituencies.

鈥淵ou couldn’t get the NEA and AFT working any harder for Harris than they already are,鈥� he said. 鈥淪he’s already broken out 鈥榯he full pander鈥� for them.鈥�

Hess said Harris likely chose Walz as a 鈥渧ibe pick鈥� who suits midwesterners in style if not substance: 鈥淗e looks like a big, burly high school football coach, assistant principal, kind of sensible guy from Middle America鈥� who served in the military, 鈥渨hereas Shapiro looks like an investment banker. Part of the calculation might be that that visual is worth plenty.鈥�

Harris may also be trying to 鈥渂uy herself a lot more leeway with the left so she can keep tacking back to the middle on issues 鈥� and the left will be happy because they feel like Walz is one of them.鈥�

It鈥檚 possible centrists or moderates in battleground states will be swayed by Walz, Hess said, but his progressive policy solutions could stop them in their tracks. 鈥淭he guy’s a high school teacher who has been in the National Guard for 20 years,鈥� he said. 鈥淗is politics are extreme, but his profile, his biography, is about as Norman Rockwell as you can get.鈥�

That moment when you鈥檙e a union president, and find out that a teacher and union member is going to be the next vice-president.

We鈥檙e excited for former public school teacher & AFT member to join on the ballot this November!

馃抠

鈥� AFT (@AFTunion)

But Chris Stewart, CEO of and an education blogger based in Minneapolis, said framing Walz in traditional political terms is misleading. Minnesota may be progressive, but it鈥檚 鈥渘ot wild and crazy. We’re not San Francisco. 鈥� I don’t think people know how purple Minnesota can be,鈥� he said of . 

Despite the divide, Stewart said, Walz has succeeded with a 鈥渧ery slim majority鈥� in the state legislature. 

But rather than judging Walz on a 鈥渓eft-right continuum,鈥� he said, we should look at him as 鈥渏ust a better version of a great American Democrat. He is not left or right in the way that we traditionally think about things. He kind of breaks that binary.鈥�

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