News: Can a Minnesota teacher win Pennsylvania?

Monday, August 12, 2024

Can a Minnesota teacher win Pennsylvania?

Aug 12, 2024

With help from Juan Perez Jr.

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz at a campaign rally.

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris introduces her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, during a campaign event in Philadelphia, on Aug. 6, 2024. | Jamie Kelter Davis for POLITICO

‘MAINSTREAM AMERICAN VALUES’ — Can Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz both rally the Democratic Party’s base and win over persuadable conservative and independent voters in battleground states?

— Weekly Education caught up with Arthur Steinberg, the recently elected president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers and Pennsylvania’s chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, about the policy chops and political message Walz brings to the ticket.

Pennsylvania is one of the seven swing states that could influence the election, and recent polling shows Vice President Kamala Harris has a lead in some of them, including the Keystone State. But in 2016, Hillary Clinton went on to lose the state to Donald Trump by less than 1 point, despite her summer lead. In 2020, Joe Biden beat Trump by a similar, very narrow margin.

Still, after a string of liberal victories in local school board elections, Steinberg thinks Walz’s record will play well with the middle-ground voters the Democratic Party needs to persuade.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

There might be bigger issues than education on voters’ minds this election. But why would the Harris-Walz campaign want to lean into the governor's credentials as an educator and coach? How might that help with its messaging?

Part of it is because, contrary to what you just said, education is really a major issue for our members and the public. Our surveys have shown, particularly in races in Pennsylvania, that people are very, very concerned about education — going back to decades of disinvestment and underfunding and the culture wars. So, it is uppermost in a lot of people's minds.

Where are policy areas the governor might carry influence — not just in the campaign, but potentially in a future administration?

In local elections prior to the ones that were just held, Moms for Liberty and far-right groups had made significant inroads. Then in this last midterm election, they were soundly repudiated.

It is clear that the public and Gov. Walz and the Democratic platform really pushes the competing philosophy. They are not in favor of banning books. They are not in favor of censoring teachers for teaching honest history. They want people to have the freedom to present the facts as they are. They are very serious about the rights of all students, whether they’re LGBTQ+ or from different ethnic groups.

And the general populace in Pennsylvania reaffirmed that. It’s clearly an issue that resonates with the public, not just our members.

What are elements of a successful message you think the campaign can use to reach not just base Democratic voters in Pennsylvania but also persuadable moderates and independents?

We don't separate education from economics. You provide people with sound educational opportunities and that gives them the ability and opportunity to get good paying jobs and take care of their families.

Look no further than what Gov. Walz did in Minnesota. He instituted paid family and medical leave. That affects all workers, not just our educators. But to me, those are mainstream American values. That's one issue that I think he connects with the population as a whole.

A Walz-driven message that works in Minnesota and Wisconsin media markets might not necessarily translate to western Pennsylvania or the collar counties around Philadelphia. Or would it?

Those values play in rural Nebraska, western Pennsylvania and the collar counties in Philadelphia.

The research has shown voters want teachers to be able to teach without fear of being fired for factual information they give their kids. Going back to the Family Medical Leave Act, I believe that is an issue that resonates with everybody — whether you live in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; Bellefonte, Pennsylvania; or Washington County in southwestern Pennsylvania.

-- Juan Perez Jr.

IT’S MONDAY, August 12. WELCOME TO MORNING EDUCATION. I’m your host Rebecca Carballo. Send me a note at rcarballo@politico.com. Reach out with tips to me or my colleagues: Juan Perez Jr. (jperez@politico.com), Bianca Quilantan (bquilantan@politico.com) and Mackenzie Wilkes (mwilkes@politico.com).

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SAVE Plan

ANOTHER LEGAL BLOW TO SAVE — The Texas attorney general’s office sent a letter over the weekend urging the Supreme Court to weigh in on a lawsuit regarding the Biden administration's loan repayment plan, known as SAVE.

In July, South Carolina, Alaska and Texas filed an emergency request to have the program blocked and asked the Supreme Court to take up the case. In the letter Saturday, the Texas attorney general’s office said an emergency request is no longer needed because an appeals court effectively blocked the plan in an order on Friday.

However, Texas is still asking the Supreme Court to review the case. If anything, the latest block from the appeals court “underscores” why the high court should review the case before judgment, the state’s lawyers write.

“It is increasingly plain that the federal government will continue to try (to) give away nearly a half trillion dollars of the public’s money,” Aaron L. Nielson, Texas’ solicitor general, wrote.

Here’s what you need to know about the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals decision from Friday: Three Republican-appointed judges blocked SAVE for an unknown amount of time.

In a 3-0 ruling, the judges stopped millions of student loan borrowers from accessing lower monthly payments and cancellations under the program, similar to their previous order in July, when the appeals court first halted SAVE in its entirety. At the time, the Education Department put about 8 million borrowers in forbearance once the order was issued.

This new order provides greater detail on the merits of the judges’ arguments. They said that past loan repayment programs that forgave debt after 20 to 25 years were uncontroversial, but the Biden administration’s plan is far more extensive.

“The new SAVE plan, by contrast, is an order of magnitude broader than anything that has come before,” the judges wrote.

AROUND THE AGENCIES

MISHANDLING COMPLAINTS: Officials at a San Diego school district mishandled multiple student complaints about sexual harassment and sexual assault, officials from the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights said on Friday.

Over the course of three years, students in the district submitted 253 reports and complaints of sexual harassment and assault, with almost 40 percent of those allegations coming from elementary schools, according to the Office of Civil Rights’ report.

The accusations included “student-to-student” and “employee-to-student” misconduct that potentially violated federal statutes, including Title IX, the office said. While evaluating the district’s responses to sexual harassment, it discovered district officials may have denied students a free, appropriate public education for students with disabilities.

OCR learned that the district was notified about students with disabilities who were alleged perpetrators as well as targeted students of sexual harassment.

“District files included information about escalating disability-based behaviors that caused sexual harassment and about students with disabilities who repeatedly perpetrated, or were victims of, sexual harassment,” the report notes.

The OCR made calls for the following remedies:

Conducting a review of previous incidents or reported student-to-student and employee-to-student sexual harassment to determine whether further action is needed to provide an equitable resolution of the incidents and to ensure nondiscrimination with respect to students with disabilities
Providing annual age-appropriate training to all students in grades 3-12 about how to recognize and report sexual harassment and receive supportive measures and remedies
Administering annual climate surveys of parents, students and district employees with respect to sexual harassment in district schools

You can read about all the changes here.

Syllabus

Former students and colleagues recall high school teachers Tim and Gwen Walz as allies and advocates. Associated Press.

Two years after the CHIPS Act, the race heats up to train tens of thousands of workers. NBC News.

Three Columbia Deans Who Sent Texts Evoking “Antisemitic Tropes” Are Resigning. The Wall Street Journal.

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