Walz makes second trip to Iowa, attacks school choice program

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Yep, you read it correct. Tubby Walz went to the Iowa state fair to tell them how to run their school program!

Walz also indicated that he would not support a presidential bid from fellow Minnesotan Rep. Dean Phillips, saying the congressman should stay in his lane.

By Anthony Gockowski - August 12, 2023

Please see the Original article for links AlphaNews

Gov. Tim Walz traveled to Iowa Thursday for the second time in as many weeks to deliver counter-messaging to the GOP presidential hopefuls who flocked to the Iowa State Fair.

Walz stopped in Des Moines late last month ahead of an Iowa Republican fundraiser. Such frequent trips to the first-in-the-nation caucus state ahead of a presidential election are often considered a sign of a White House bid, though Walz insists he’s not plotting a run for higher office but simply helping “make the case” for a second Biden term.

The governor delivered his routine stump speech on the GOP’s “morally reprehensible” agenda — “they’re banning books, we’re banning hunger” — before sitting down for a podcast interview with Iowa Democrats in which he criticized Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’ school choice program.

“Whenever you come up with one of these schemes — and that’s exactly what they are — to transfer wealth to folks on the backs of these students, we already know that we’re going to underfund public schools that are already underfunded. And we know that about 70% of those students that are going to receive those vouchers or whatever they’re calling them are already attending those schools. What we end up doing is subsidizing folks who are already attending private, religious schools, whatever it may be, or homeschooling, and it leaves our teachers in the short,” Walz claimed.

Reynolds signed an expansive school choice bill into law earlier this year that will put $7,598 annually per student in an education savings account that families can then use for the school of their choice, according to the Des Moines Register.

“We know these (nonpublic) schools don’t have to take everyone and they’ll send kids back,” Walz said, claiming there’s “no data to support that those students are doing any better, that those schools are achieving any better.”

The governor then argued that nonpublic schools may teach that “it is OK to discriminate against some of our students” while criticizing a new Iowa law that seeks to keep sexually explicit content out of schools.

“You don’t want your child or your student to do something, then don’t let them do that, but don’t take away my freedom, don’t take away my child’s freedom. Don’t enforce your views on all of us. And let’s be very clear about this. This entire agenda, this entire voucher agenda, is exactly about that, about not wanting to teach that, because I’m sure at these schools we may not hear the whole history of how things are happening. We may hear that it is OK to discriminate against some of our students,” he commented.

Walz also indicated that he would not support a presidential bid from fellow Minnesotan Rep. Dean Phillips, who wants to see a Democrat challenge President Joe Biden in the primaries and is considering a run himself.

“President Biden will be our nominee and it’s not about all the distracting issues,” Walz said. “I’m not spending much time on that. Congressman Phillips is a great congressman and as I’ve said before, I think all of us stay in our lane and do the work necessary.”

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Walz travels to Iowa to deliver potshots at GOP presidential hopefuls

The Minnesota governor held a press conference with Iowa Democrats in Des Moines a few hours before Trump, DeSantis, and other candidates participated in an Iowa Republican dinner.

By Hank Long - July 29, 2023

Gov. Tim Walz has told more than a handful of media this summer — when asked — that he’s not running for president. And he’s made it clear he supports the work of the Biden-Harris administration.

But the Minnesota Democrat couldn’t help but find himself in Iowa this weekend as GOP presidential hopefuls — including former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — participated in an Iowa Republican presidential forum in Des Moines and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at Drake University.

On Friday, Walz traveled to Iowa’s largest city, where he was a guest of the Iowa Democratic Party and held a press conference with journalists in town to cover the Iowa Republican Lincoln Dinner and Harris’s speech.

During his press conference, Walz made the claim that Minnesotans “commonly refer to [Iowa] as the Deep South for Minnesota.” He also intimated, according to Iowa-based journalist Ty Rushing, that he’s planning to visit the Iowa State Fair next month.

And while he mentioned his support for the “Biden-Harris administration” more than a half dozen times, Walz spent most of his 25-minute press availability lobbing insults at the Republican presidential candidates who were in town for the event, billed as a preview of the pivotal Iowa caucuses that will kick off the GOP presidential primary season in January.

“While they are going to go over there tonight and debate what books to ban, we are banning hunger in our schools, with the help of the Biden-Harris administration,” Walz told journalists. He then rattled off a list of accomplishments he achieved with the DFL majority in the legislature, including a new universal school meals program, paid family leave legislation, new abortion protections, two new gun restriction laws and a new law restoring voting rights for felons who are still serving parole or probation.

“In Minnesota, and the Upper Midwest, we’ve always been proud about expanding and opening access to the ballot,” Walz said. “The debates over there tonight will be how to make that more difficult, how to hand pick the people who you want to be able to vote.”

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