Sep 27, 2023 At 04:09 PM EDT
Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz is proof that you can take the teacher out of the classroom, but you can't stop her from uplifting students.
On September 21, Walz attended the Mayors Challenge, an annual fundraising event for the Minnesota Urban Debate League (MNUDL) held at the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis. The event, which Walz helped coordinate, featured a debate between four Minneapolis and St. Paul public school students on economic inequality, this year's national policy debate topic.
Walz said seeing the "poised and articulate" students debate in front of a room of 200 adults from school boards, law firms and elected office makes all the work that goes into the event worthwhile.
"I always feel like I gain more than I give," she told Newsweek. "I felt that as a teacher, too. I feel like I always learned more than I taught."
Her husband, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, could not attend in person this year, but he made an appearance over Zoom, and talked about the importance of supporting debate and public education.
Since he took office in 2019, Walz and his wife, both of whom are former teachers, have made education a top priority. In May, the governor signed into law a new education budget that aims to improve Minnesota schools by increasing public education funding and investments in teachers and school support staff, according to Education Minnesota, a trade union representing pre-K-to-12 teachers, school support staff and higher education faculty in Minnesota.
Before their life in public office, Tim and Gwen Walz were educators. Gwen, who was born and raised in Minnesota, began her career as an English teacher in western Nebraska. It was there that she met her husband, a Nebraska native and Army National Guardsman who previously taught at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, as well as oversees in China.
The couple later moved to Minnesota and worked at Mankato West High School. Tim was a social studies teacher, and Gwen worked as an administrator and coordinator for the district.
While he was coaching football, she was focused on the speech and debate team. She started the program at the school and soon saw the impact that debate has on students.
"We had so many kids involved and engaged so quickly, so I saw the transformation," she told Newsweek. "We have all the research now that says [debate students] score better on tests, but back in the early '90s, we didn't have it in that way. So I was watching that happen before my very eyes. I saw the difference it made for all kids, especially kids who may not feel like they had a voice."
In 2006, Tim Walz was elected to represent Minnesota's 1st Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and held that seat until 2016. After her husband assumed office as the governor of Minnesota, Walz had to step away from her teaching career. But that doesn't mean she stopped being an advocate for education and debate.
One of the first actions Walz took after moving to St. Paul was joining the board of the MNUDL. There, she continued to prove that students are a priority for her.
While on the board, she worked to revamp the league's Mayors Challenge, which initially featured a debate between the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Walz suggested that the event refocus to feature a student debate.
Robert Groven, the director of the MNUDL and an associate professor and co-chair of the Department of Communication Studies, Film and New Media at Augsburg University, said Gwen and the governor are great allies because they understand what teaching is like on the ground level, as well as at a policy level.
As a board member, Walz has been helpful in making connections, gaining state funding and recruiting new board members and allies for the league, Groven said.
"Honestly, her biggest contribution is really just good advice," he said. "She just understands how all of these systems work in a really sophisticated way. That is so helpful to us in terms of day-to-day operations and larger strategies."
But the connections the governor's office has also cannot be ignored. Last year, the national high school policy debate topic focused on NATO, and Walz helped connect the MNUDL with ambassadors from several Nordic countries. Later, the officials from Sweden and Norway were then able to Zoom into a discussion during the 2022 Mayors Challenge. Groven said these connections brought in a greater amount of sponsors, attendance and publicity "that we would have never otherwise gotten."
This year, Groven said the league was able to have Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison attend the event in person to receive his Champion of Change award because of his close personal relationship with Tim and Gwen Walz.
Proponents of debate say debate programs in public schools are helpful for preparing the next generation of leaders to discuss solutions for various local, national and global issues in an articulate and nuanced way. When Walz joined the MNUDL board, Groven said she understood the league's vision that debate is not just an extracurricular activity, but a larger social and political movement.
"Gwen immediately understood that the inequity in access to the skills that debate gives was a problem of equity and social justice," he said. "It was a problem of disparity of crucial training that students were getting in private schools and in wealthy suburban schools that they were not getting in other types of schools."
Groven added that debate is a vehicle to advocacy and activism because it empowers students and teaches them the skills necessary to "move the levers of power in society" and make real changes in the community.
Sabrena Thao, a senior at Tartan High School in Oakdale, debated and interviewed Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey at the 2023 Mayors Challenge.
Beyond improving her public speaking skills, Thao said debate opened her eyes to what's going on in the world and helped her understand multiple sides and perspectives of different issues. She also said the support that she and the MNUDL receive from the Twin Cities mayors, governor and first lady is "amazing."
"It's phenomenal that I'm part of something that is going to make an impact on what happens in the future," Thao said.
Rochelle Cox, the interim superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools, said the strong partnership between the governor and first lady, Twin City schools and the MNUDL shows that educators and elected officials are working toward the same goal of supporting public education.
"If a school district is not doing well, then the city is not doing well," Cox said. "Those relationships really help when we're having challenging conversations about things happening in our community as we move forward."
The Walzes' political work is directly linked to their support for debate, Groven said, as building a group of people with critical thinking and media literacy skills is essential for a healthy democracy.
Gwen Walz told Newsweek that there are many people today who "cannot discern a fact from an opinion if their life depended on it."
"We have people who are believing what seems more plausible to their experience rather than what's based on good research and facts and logical arguments and development," she said. "And they're making big decisions on those sorts of things and, frankly, they're making stupid decisions on those things."
While listening to members of Congress or presidential candidates argue in circles about various policies may feel disheartening, Walz said working with debate students gives her "so much hope."
"You know, people often say [they're] worried about the future. Well, save your energy because there's not a thing to be worried about here," she said. "If you worked in a high school, I think you would not be worried one bit because [the students] are amazing."
But debate is not just about having all of the facts—it's also about understanding societal problems at a human level. Walz said it is easier to really listen and understand others when discussing issues like economic inequality, voting rights and health care access face to face.
The combination of good research and original arguments grounded in personal experience leads to good public policy "and better human beings," Walz added.
After five years as part of the MNUDL, Walz said she has benefitted so much from her time working with students.
Walz views her role as first lady as just another way to give students more opportunities. She referenced the governor's One Minnesota plan, a mission to improve the lives of all Minnesotans by focusing on children and families, health care, equity and inclusion, and creating "safe and thriving communities, housing [and] workforce," according to the governor's website.
Walz said her goal is to open opportunities and help others reach their potential, adding that debate is one way for people to "have a seat at the table."
"At the end of the day, I get to make a difference," she said, "and I've always believed that debate is a place to do that."
