Minnesota’s collapse of K-12 education achievement since Tim Walz’s election as governor is well documented. Once known for its relatively high educational performance, Minnesota’s shocking decline now exceeds, in some metrics, the decline of the nation as a whole.
Why is this happening? Gov. Walz has dramatically transformed the purpose of education in Minnesota. Academic achievement is no longer the primary goal. Instead, Walz’s education focus is transforming the students’ values, attitudes, and beliefs into the woke worldview. This indoctrination is called “culturally relevant” teaching and is woven throughout the Walz education program. Social emotional learning and restorative justice are just two examples of how this “culturally relevant” teaching has been embedded into Minnesota’s K-12 curriculum.
Tim Walz revealed his governing agenda, including his education agenda, in his first official executive order as governor—he established a Diversity Council (i.e. DEI).
To implement his DEI agenda, he appointed woke members to the teacher licensing board (PELSB). His appointees revised academic social studies standards, instituted radical ethnic studies, and issued Marxist teacher licensing standards. The new teaching licensing standards require newly licensed teachers to adopt and teach the basic doctrines of the Cultural Marxist worldview in every class and school activity.
For example, the new licensing standards require teachers to teach the dogma of white
supremacy which assumes that all whites are inherently racist. It divides all people into two racial groups—whites (the oppressor class) and nonwhites (the oppressed class). White supremacy, implicit bias, and systemic racism are foundational Marxist principles, and new teachers must adopt and teach them all.
Gender ideology, which pits sexual identity groups against each other, is also required. This is a key Cultural Marxist principle that must be affirmed in Minnesota schools. Walz’s Department of Human Rights requires that boys be allowed into girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms, and it requires the use of “preferred” pronouns, as gender ideology demands. Tim Walz is so deeply invested in promoting and normalizing children choosing their genders that he supported and signed legislation requiring school districts to provide tampons in all the boys’ bathrooms. “Boys menstruate, too,” students are told. (For this reason, the governor is often called “Tampon Tim.”)
The Department of Human Rights has also forced school districts to report student discipline by race and require equal outcomes (equity) in discipline. The results have been horrific chaos and violence.
James Lindsay points out that Cultural Marxism is essentially a religious cult. It is diametrically opposed to our U.S. Constitution and to Christianity. Minnesota’s new education standards and programs follow the advice of Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, the neo-Marxist godfather of Cultural Marxism, who said that for the Marxist revolution to succeed, the Marxists must control education (and the media). This is Minnesota today.
Therefore, when it comes to Tim Walz’s philosophy of education, don’t be fooled by what he says: look at what he has done. You will see the kind of indoctrination system that closely resembles that of Communist China. Is this a coincidence? Not likely. Expect what Tim Walz has done to Minnesota education, he will do to America’s schools, as well.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not represent an official position of Alpha News.
Allen Quist
Allen Quist is a former 3-term Minnesota state legislator and retired professor of Christian apologetics and political science at Bethany Lutheran College, and has authored ten books on education and Christian apologetics.
