By Neeraja Deshpande for RealClearEducation
The Nationwide Educators Affiliation, the most important lecturers union in America, is “fired up” for Kamala Harris’s VP nominee, Tim Walz. “Gov. Walz is known as the ‘Education Governor,’” wrote NEA President Becky Pringle, “because he has been an unwavering champion for public school students and educators, and an ally for working families and unions. As a high school teacher and NEA member, Walz is committed to uplifting our public schools.”
The NEA’s endorsement needs to be worrisome for People who’re really involved concerning the state of schooling on this nation: for years, the NEA has put radical politics above kids.
Sadly, so has Tim Walz.
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Throughout the pandemic, Walz, in lockstep with lecturers unions, stored colleges closed for prolonged intervals of time. “As Governor, Tim Walz chose teachers union money over putting students first and the results have been disastrous,” mentioned Home Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) to the New York Put up.
Certainly, when Walz took workplace as governor of Minnesota in 2019, 59.2% of Minnesota college students have been proficient in studying and 55% have been proficient in math. 4 years later, in 2023, these numbers fell to 49.9% and 45.5%, respectively. Over that very same time interval below Walz, Minnesota’s continual absenteeism price greater than doubled, from 14% to 30%. In 2018, earlier than Walz took workplace, Minnesota’s colleges have been ranked fifth within the nation; 5 years later, in 2024, they’re ranked seventeenth. With such disastrous numbers, one would count on Walz to concentrate on getting again to the fundamentals: studying, writing, arithmetic.
However, except for passing an act in 2023 to mandate evidence-based studying strategies in colleges, Walz’s schooling agenda has had little to do with precise schooling.
As an alternative, Walz has spent a lot of his time in workplace fear-mongering about so-called conservative guide bans, which have been debunked repeatedly. In Could of this yr, Walz signed into legislation a invoice that “prohibits banning, removing, or otherwise restricting access to an otherwise age-appropriate book or other material from a school library based solely on the viewpoint, content, message, idea, or opinion conveyed.” In observe, because of this lecturers and librarians in Minnesota can expose kids to express books with out accountability.
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Furthermore, after Minnesota erupted in riots following the dying of George Floyd, Walz sought to broaden ethnic research schooling. In November 2021, the Minnesota Division of Schooling (MDE) proposed a radical Ok-12 ethnic research curriculum, infused with important race idea.
This new curriculum, which shall be a part of Minnesota college students’ social research necessities starting within the 2026-27 college yr, is split into three subcategories: “Identity,” “Resistance,” and “Ways of Knowing.” Amongst different topics, Minnesota college students shall be compelled to study “the roots of contemporary systems of oppression and apply lessons from the past that could eliminate historical and contemporary injustices.” That’s all to say that this academic mandate will inject activism into Minnesota colleges.
That is no surprise, on condition that the Minnesota Division of Schooling below Walz took its directivefor this curriculum from the Minnesota chapter of the novel Schooling for Liberation Community, which states on its web site that its mission is “to be a political force in the state of MN to contend with the status quo of colonial education that prioritizes Eurocentric curricula.” In different phrases, college students won’t study American historical past a lot as they are going to study a progressive subversion of it.
Make no mistake: Minnesota’s radical curriculum and schooling coverage failures are a direct reflection of Walz’s priorities and judgments. If he’s elected alongside Kamala Harris in November, Minnesota’s academic issues will make sure you unfold throughout the nation.
Syndicated with permission from RealClearWire.
