‘Never Underestimate a Public School Teacher’: Walz’s Speech Stirs Night Three of DNC

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This article is part of The 74’s EDlection 2024 coverage, which takes a look at candidates’ education policies and how they might impact the American education system after the 2024 election.

As the clock ticked past 11:00 Wednesday night and East Coast viewers awaited the acceptance speech of Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, the programmers of the Democratic National Convention pulled out one last surprise before their vice presidential nominee’s arrival. 

On an evening that had already seen appearances by Bill Clinton, Oprah and a lengthy speakers’ list of Democratic Party officeholders, Walz was preceded in Chicago by 15 former members of the Mankato West High School Scarlets, the football team he helped coach to a Minnesota state title in 1999. Wider and grayer than in their playing days, the two lines of jersey-clad supporters walked onstage to the strains of the Mankato West fight song.

The miniature pep rally was another biographical touch in the Democrats’ efforts to introduce the electorate to Walz, an obscure figure outside of party circles just a few weeks ago. The campaign has leaned heavily on the governor’s years of experience as a teacher and coach, including numerous testimonials from former pupils and colleagues. If elected, he would become the first vice president in over 60 years to have previously worked as a K–12 teacher.

In a 16-minute address, Walz credited his students with inspiring him to make his first run for Congress in 2006, a longshot bid that saw him unseat a six-term incumbent. 

“There I was, a 40-something high school teacher with little kids, zero political experience and no money, running in a deep-red district,” he remembered. “But you know what? Never underestimate a public-school teacher.”

Yet, like most of the convention thus far, the speech ran short on details related to education policy. Walz made little mention of his six-year governing record in Minnesota, where he signed sweeping school funding legislation in 2023 but also took criticism for the length of pandemic-related school closures. While delivering a passing shot at Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance for attending Yale Law School, he didn’t refer to the wave of laws passed in red states that allow public funding to flow to private school tuition. 

Instead, in keeping with attacks launched by speakers through the first three days of the convention, Walz jabbed at Republicans for seeking to review and remove controversial materials from school libraries. As governor, he signed laws both to provide universal school lunches to students and prohibit book removals based on ideology — a combination he trumpeted with one of the night’s biggest applause lines.

“While other states were banning books from their schools, we were banishing hunger from ours,” he said to cheers.

Echoing the Democrats’ longstanding commitments to gun safety legislation, Walz further pledged to fight for children’s “freedom to go to school without being shot dead in the hall.” Despite his respect for the Second Amendment as a hunter and Army National Guard veteran, he added, “our first responsibility is to keep our kids safe.”

With audience members waving signs reading “Coach Walz,” the nominee brought the remarks to a close by returning to the theme of teamwork and the beginnings of his leadership on the gridiron.

“It’s the fourth quarter. We’re down a field goal, but we’re on offense and we’ve got the ball. We’re driving down the field. And boy, do we have the right team.”

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