In Former Educator Tim Walz, California Teachers Unions See One of Their Own

California teachers unions see one of their own in Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, a former high school teacher and assistant football coach who is now Democrats’ vice presidential candidate, potentially giving them a solid ally as public districts in the state grapple with budget shortfalls and fears of layoffs.

After Vice President Kamala Harris named Walz as her running mate on Tuesday, several labor leaders pointed to his experience as an educator, his support for unions and his record of passing legislation that bolstered students and working families as governor.

“He very much understands what we do because he did it,” said Jeff Freitas, president of the California Teachers Federation, which represents more than 120,000 educational employees.
“This is a great opportunity for education.”

The two-term Minnesota governor has enacted an ambitious Democratic agenda so far, including sending billions of additional dollars to K–12 schools, offering free breakfast and lunch for all students, and requiring employers to provide paid sick leave benefits.

A Harris-Walz administration would support increasing federal funding for public schools and bolster the case for raising educators’ salaries in California, where entry-level teachers can earn $58,000 per year — not enough for many to afford to live in the state, Freitas said.

In San Francisco, where district officials are considering closing schools and cutting hundreds of positions to balance the budget, Harris’ choice of Walz was “uplifting,” said Cassondra Curiel, president of the United Educators of San Francisco.

“It signals that our nation’s highest office could reflect the actual values from the classroom, which is to ensure that our students have the most opportunities to learn no matter where they live, no matter their zip code,” said Curiel, whose union represents about 6,000 teachers, counselors, nurses and other certificated school workers. “Classrooms need to be fully funded.”

Walz, 60, represented a conservative-leaning rural district in Congress for a dozen years. Before public office, Walz taught social studies and helped coach the Mankato West High School football team. His wife, Gwen, also worked as a teacher and school administrator. He was a member of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, according to the unions.

Republican vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance and supporters have sought to brand Walz as a “San Francisco-style liberal” with economic policies that are too radical for the country. Critics also attacked Walz as too slow to stop the looting, arson and violence that left at least two people dead and heavily damaged hundreds of businesses in Minneapolis and St. Paul during the George Floyd protests of 2020. Democratic allies have defended Walz, who served in the Army National Guard for 24 years, as having a strong record on public safety.

Walz’s working-class background is set to energize more voters who are not fully sold on former President Donald Trump, said Ken Jacobs, who chairs the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, which studies unions and the workforce.

And with Trump-era corporate tax cuts set to end in 2025, the nation’s next leaders will likely issue high-stakes decisions such as how much to invest in working people and students versus benefits for corporations and wealthy Americans, Jacobs said.

Freitas, also a vice president at the American Federation of Teachers, believes that if elected to the White House, Trump and Vance would be much less supportive of public schools than Harris and Walz.

“The gap is like the Grand Canyon,” he said, comparing the two presidential campaigns. “It is just the opposite in terms of their beliefs.”