Teachers see something in Tim Walz.
They notice how plainly he speaks so that everyone can follow along. They watch as he ad-libs to comedic effect on the stump. They say he exudes empathy, and not just in the “I feel your pain” way of many politicians.
In the newly minted vice presidential candidate — a former high school history teacher and varsity football coach — they see themselves. Many of them also see an opportunity.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy against former President Donald Trump is groundbreaking in many ways. But her selection of Walz as a running mate is momentous in its own, more nuanced way. It’s been more than 50 years since a K-12 teacher has appeared on a major party ticket (Former President Lyndon Johnson taught high school before entering politics.)
Chalkbeat asked teachers around the country what Walz’s candidacy means to them. Some said it is a chance to show that teachers are leaders with valuable skills, like being adaptable and able to multitask. Others said Walz could help people better understand what teachers do, in contrast to those who disparage public educators. Others still see his entrance into the race as a moment to get serious about education policy issues, such as teacher pay, class sizes, and curriculum.
Here is what they told us, in their own words, edited for length and clarity.
A teacher who ‘knows what needs to be said’
Ashley A. Kannan teaches history and coaches girls’ basketball at Percy Julian Middle School in Oak Park, Illinois. He is the faculty sponsor for Rainbow Tribe, the school’s LGBTQIA+ safe space.
When Walz was introduced at the Philadelphia rally, a former student messaged me, “In the best way possible: Tim Walz reminds me a bit of you.”
I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about, and then I just watched him, and she was right. It struck me to see a history teacher, a coach. In 1999, he founded his school’s first LGBTQ safe space. In 2016, I did that at our school. There are just these weird parallels.
One thing he’s representing quite well is the idea of teachers as leaders. We don’t see ourselves as leaders. We’ll lead children. We’ll lead content, but then we default back to “I’m just a teacher.” He doesn’t. He leans into it.
I heard that when he was vetted [by the Harris campaign], one of the questions they asked was how skilled is he at using a teleprompter, and he said: I don’t use a teleprompter. You’re going to have to teach me how to do that. This is a teacher who knows what needs to be said, whether it’s on the field or in the classroom. He doesn’t need it written out on cue cards or teleprompters because it’s coming from the heart, it’s coming from the mind, and it’s coming from the soul.
There’s ‘symbolism’ in choosing Walz
Dr. Geneva Mayne is a teacher and a speech and language pathologist who works with students in the special education program at New Rochelle High School in New Rochelle, New York.
What’s happening in public education now, unfortunately, is that many people feel trapped in a profession that has gone through a lot of negative backlash. A lot of teachers feel the skills they have are non-transferable to another profession. And here’s a person who successfully took his skills to run for political office multiple times and is now being selected as a vice presidential nominee. That was really good for educators to see because our skills are valuable.
I think the one thing that stood out to me was when people were commenting on how plainly he spoke because politicians, who are typically lawyers, might speak in a way that’s more academic than the average person can consume. Tim Walz is like, These guys are just weird. It was so direct and to the point and clear. [As a teacher], you have to take concepts that are hard for students and transfer it to them in a way that they can understand.
I watched while Kamala Harris was introducing him, and she was speaking about how he was the faculty advisor of the gay-straight alliance at his school decades ago before gay marriage was even legalized, so it was still very stigmatized. That’s empathy. As a teacher you have to have empathy and social-emotional skills, to realize when students are struggling socially and to help them in their development.
For a lot of teachers, myself included, it’s the symbolism as well. Just like [First Lady] Jill Biden, who continues to teach, is showing that teachers are professionals who should be respected, Tim Walz can do the same. Teachers have valuable skill sets, they have a lot to offer, they’re civil servants, they’re national heroes. Those are all symbols that need to be reinforced instead of the nasty tone that has been directed toward teachers over the last several years.
Could this move the needle on teacher pay?
Kathryn Vaughn teaches art at Brighton Elementary School in Brighton, Tennessee.
Walz wasn’t really on my radar until a few weeks ago, when he started kind of petitioning to be vice president. I was at home in between my two jobs, teaching summer school and managing my town’s pool. I was mopping the kitchen floor, and I just stopped dead and walked into the living room because there was this voice coming from my television talking about paid leave, about IVF, talking about vouchers and funding our public schools and raising teacher pay. I was like, “Oh my gosh, who is this person who is saying these things that are of utmost importance to the life I’m having here in Tennessee as a teacher?”
When he was explaining his hair and how he looks older, he says something like: Well, have you done cafeteria duty for 20 years? It definitely speaks to teachers. Any teacher, regardless of your political affiliation, knows and loathes cafeteria duty. It’s just such a visceral experience. You’re dealing with kids who have been cooped up all day and are coming into the cafeteria to socialize. You have kids who are fighting and messes and opening things and microwaving stuff.
All of my [teacher] friends are just really excited about the Walz pick. They’re like, maybe this could do something nationally about teacher pay. I’ve been involved in the Teacher Salary Project, advocating to raise the minimum federal teacher salary to $60,000. We need to make teaching a desirable, worthwhile field again. When I started teaching in 2006, almost no one had a second job. Now, 18 years later, I don’t know a single teacher in my district who doesn’t have a second job or three side hustles.
‘They are going to know what we go through’
Sonia White taught at public elementary schools in New York City for about 30 years. In retirement, she works as a substitute teacher in the Bronx.
There’s a lot that affects teacher burnout. People don’t respect teachers because we’re not out there earning giant paychecks. We’re not CEOs, but we taught CEOs. We taught the presidents. We taught the vice presidents. We taught Beyoncé. I think Tim Walz is going to let us be recognized more because he knows what it is to be a teacher.
You know what I said: ‘At last, they know what we’re going through. Someone went through it already, and they are going to know what we go through.’ The class sizes, the parents coming in — and the parents, they want help, too — and you have to know how to communicate with them, and, apparently, he did.
I think people don’t understand that we’re not in it for the money. We’re in it to help. I fell in love with teaching when I was in the third grade. I saw someone who looked like me, and she was teaching. I never forgot her name, Mrs. Van Dyke.
I’m happy that Tim Walz is there, and he’s still a teacher standing up there. He’s teaching people to inspire and to do something you believe in. And I believe in him. I hope I get to see him in person, and I will yell out, ‘I’m a teacher, too — I’m so happy.’
Now, let’s talk ‘specifics’
Sean Muggivan teaches math to high school seniors at New Harmony High School in New Orleans.
As a teacher, you get kind of tired of everyone feeling sorry for you. Just the way people always talk about teachers, ‘Oh you’re doing a thankless job, it’s so rough, you’re not appreciated, you’re underpaid.’ The best thing you can do is push that stuff out of your head, and just focus on doing your job, setting up your little world in your classroom, and finding your own sense of accomplishment in your career.
Over the past nine years, I’ve seen a lot of teachers tossing in the towel — saying I can’t do this job anymore. It’s too hard. I’m not sleeping. The classes are too big. It’s an exhausting job. But the idea that there could be someone possibly in the White House who did the job seriously for so long, who is not just sitting at the table, but holding a great deal of power at that table is just mind-boggling, to be honest.
I hope Tim Walz will talk specifics about what a class needs to be successful when you have diverse learning needs, exceptionalities, and language barriers. Can one adult professional in the classroom wear all those hats, or do there need to be other supports in there? What does a curriculum look like? What curriculum is going to move students who are many, many years behind? And to ask these questions in a way that starts to get solutions-focused — not just saying, oh, it’s hopeless.
Gabrielle Birkner is Chalkbeat’s features editor and fellowship director. Contact her at gbirkner@chalkbeat.org.