Walz oversaw double digit test score declines with the worst scores in 30 years.
Gov. Tim Walz has made much of being a former high school teacher in his political campaigns. The DNC brought out former students of his on stage and the media has rolled out adulatory stories claiming that Walz’s time as a teacher will help him shape America’s education policy.
But what is Walz’s actual educational record? Freedom Center Investigates took a look.
The recent release of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA) test scores for 2024 by Education Commissioner Willie Jett, a Walz appointee, were described by the Minnesota Star Tribune as “stagnant with only about half of students meeting or beating grade-level standards in math and reading.” The paper struggled to describe an empty glass as half-full.
The actual numbers showed that 49.9% of Minnesota students reached grade-level proficiency standards in reading, only 45.5% did so in math and only 39.6% managed it in science: a more accurate description would be that well less than half of Walz’s school students are proficient.
The educational glass in Minnesota isn’t half full, it’s more than half empty.
A majority of Minnesota students aren’t proficient in math or science and a little less than half can read at grade level. These are catastrophic numbers that show a school system that has failed at its most fundamental function despite billions of dollars in runaway spending.
The already terrible 2024 test scores are much worse when viewed in historical context.
In 2017, the year before the election that put Walz in charge of Minnesota, solid majorities of students were proficient in reading and math, and even science scores in the state were passable. Walz however ran as an educator and promised that he could do better.
In 2017, 59% of Minnesota students tested as proficient in math. By 2024, that number had dropped catastrophically by more than 13% down to 45.5%.
In 2017, 60% of students had tested as proficient at grade level in reading. Under Gov. Walz, those numbers have fallen to 49.9%.
In 2017, 54% of students met or exceeded test scores in science. By 2024, only 39.6% did for a decline of 14%.
The respective double digit education declines of 13%, 10% and 14% under Gov. Walz have taken test scores to some of the worst numbers in the state in thirty years.
And these numbers don’t tell the whole story of how bad things are in Minnesota. One analysis found that there were 19 schools in the state where not a single student was proficient in math.
Some of this can be attributed to Gov. Walz’s decision to pander to his teachers’ union allies in EM by shutting down schools and curtailing the education of a generation, but not all of it.
Pre-pandemic test scores were already showing declines and Gov. Walz has had years to turn around pandemic educational failures, but the former teacher who ran twice on fixing education failed to lay out any practical vision for turning around the failed public school system.
Test scores have been consistently falling since Walz took office. Math scores only improved by 1% since the pandemic and reading scores have been in freefall, declining year by year even since the pandemic and last year fell for the first time underwater below the halfway mark. --->READ MORE HERE
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate, faces growing criticism as the state's education performance has reportedly plummeted under his leadership, with opponents blaming his administration's focus on ideology over effective policies, according to the New York Post.
Walz, a former public school teacher, assumed office in 2019. Since then, the academic proficiency of Minnesota students has seen a downturn.According to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), reading proficiency fell from 59.2% in 2019 to 49.9% in 2023. Math scores have also steeply declined, dropping from 55% in 2019 to 45.5% last year.
"He spent most of the last two years working to accommodate far-left demands in his party rather than working to address real education issues in our state," said Republican state Sen. Carla Nelson, herself a former teacher.
According to Nelson, "burdensome mandates on schools" have led to budget shortfalls and pulled teachers away from their students.
Under Walz's administration, the state has also seen a dramatic increase in chronic absenteeism. During the 2021-22 school year, 30% of Minnesota students missed more than 10% of school days, more than double the rate from 2019.
Additionally, the MDE's recent revisions to the social studies standards, which now require an "ethnic studies" component for K-12 students, have sparked further controversy. Critics argue that these changes aim to instill a radical worldview in students rather than improve educational outcomes. --->READ MORE HEREFOLLOW LINKS BELOW TO A RELEVANT STORY:
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