The sons and daughters of Minnesota’s beleaguered families are forced to endure an incompetent education system as their governor prioritizes his political ambitions over the needs of the people he was elected to serve. Recent test scores showed that the overwhelming majority of students in Walz’s state are not proficient in mathematics or reading. Moreover, their proficiency levels have regressed since Walz was elected governor.

Consider the harrowing statistics.

In 2022, the most recent year in which data were available, the results of statewide assessments revealed that only 41% of fourth grade students throughout the state were proficient in math. This was a decrease from the state’s last evaluation in 2019. Even more shockingly, only 32% of Minnesota fourth graders tested proficient in reading! This, too, was a drop from 2019. Also, Minnesota’s fourth-grade reading test scores fell below the national average, according to the nation’s report card.

As governor, Walz promoted the “Due North” education plan, which focused on traditional aggrieved racial divisions and liberal ideological tenets. Walz’s education reform plan centered on “a future where every child receives a high-quality education, no matter their race or ZIP code.” Literature for this program touted the curriculum’s inclusion of “ethnic studies.” However, as test results have revealed, instead of useless left-wing indoctrination, Walz’s education curriculum should have focused on student success, academic performance, and rudimentary proficiency in math and reading — actual skills students will need to succeed in society.

Walz’s education disaster was even worse with older students.

Test results showed that in 2022, only 32% of eighth grade students in Minnesota tested proficient in math. The information was even worse for reading, for which an inexplicably low total of 30% of eighth graders were proficient. Similar to the results of fourth grade students, both of these percentages were lower than in 2019.

Walz’s systemic failure in education appears to be decimating the state’s public schools. In 2023, 78 public schools in Walz’s state failed to have just one student “in at least one entire grade level” proficient in reading or math on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests.

Upon his election victory in 2018, Walz was celebrated for his background in education and work as a social studies teacher. Education Minnesota, a bimonthly union periodical described as “the voice for professional educators and students,” hailed Walz as “educator-in-chief” in its December 2018-January 2019 issue. Yet, under Walz, Minnesota’s students have gone backward.

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The “educator-in-chief” has been a cataclysmic failure. Regarding the scores mentioned above, Catrin Wigfall, a policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, reported that the “fourth-grade reading and eighth-grade math performance on the national tests” in Walz’s state were “the lowest in 30 years.”

This is the Tim Walz effect on Minnesota’s education, and it’s just one of the reasons why he should remain as far away from the White House as possible. His record speaks for itself. As a former teacher, Walz should know that such atrocious student performance under his watch doesn’t warrant a promotion. He should also know that accountability matters. Voters in the country should know this, too. Walz should worry more about the ability of students in his state to read and do basic math, not vying to become vice president.