The student population has not only , but the district saw an unprecedented influx of English learners. 

鈥淚t’s a huge testament to the work being done in Tulsa,鈥� he said at a state board meeting. 鈥淚 think that you’re seeing parents that have confidence in what’s being done there.鈥�

But now he wants parents in Tulsa and other districts throughout the state to share their citizenship status when they enroll their children 鈥� a proposal that not only violates but is likely to keep some parents from sending their children to school. 

Districts say they don鈥檛 know how many undocumented students they have, but In Tulsa, the population of English learners grew from 10,168 in 2023 to 11,149 last year. 

President-elect Donald Trump鈥檚 are celebrating Walters鈥� effort to end 鈥渟anctuary schools,鈥� but district leaders say the plan is traumatizing vulnerable families.

鈥淚t’s hurtful, and it’s going to create fear,鈥� said Nick Migliorino, superintendent of the Norman Public Schools, south of Oklahoma City. 鈥淣ot educating kids because of the status of their parents helps nobody.鈥� 

The Oklahoma State Department of Education says the is needed to determine how many tutors and teachers districts need for English learners. But it comes as many national Republicans are eager to challenge a longstanding Supreme Court ruling, , which  guarantees undocumented students an education in the U.S. 

鈥淚t’s reasonable to presume that this is an attack on Plyler,鈥� said Julie Sugarman, associate director of the National Center on Immigrant Integration at the Migration Policy Institute. 鈥淚f the Supreme Court was to say, 鈥榃ell, we changed our mind 鈥� you actually can ask about immigration status,鈥� that would really put all of Plyler into question.鈥� 

The public has until Jan. 17 to submit comments on the rule. The state Board of Education will hold a public hearing the same day. 

The plan follows an election in which President-elect Donald Trump referred to the U.S. as a for undocumented immigrants. He has called for on Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids at schools on the day he takes office and said he would 鈥� even if their children were born in the U.S.

Walters foreshadowed the new rule in July when he asked districts to account for the 鈥渃ost and burden鈥� of illegal immigration. And on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and ICE Deputy Director Peter Flores for $474 million, saying their 鈥渇ailed border policies鈥� have placed 鈥渟evere financial and operational strain鈥� on Oklahoma鈥檚 schools. He a bill for the same figure in October. 

The state, which has an under 16, will need an additional 1,065 teachers for English learners over the next five years, he wrote in his letter to Harris. He offered no specifics on where he got that figure. 

鈥淲e cannot effectively budget or allocate critical resources when we have no accounting of the cost that illegal immigration places on our schools,鈥� the letter said.

shows that the percentage of English learners in the state, about 10%, hasn鈥檛 increased since the 2021-22 school year. But teachers in Tulsa have definitely noticed the influx of newcomers. 

鈥淪ome of them just show up on Monday and they don’t speak any English,鈥� said one teacher in the district who did not want to be named in order to protect students. She often communicates with students through bilingual staff members. 鈥淚 just hear the saddest stories every day. The kids are really sweet, but they’re afraid.鈥�  

She worries about what might happen if recent immigrants are unable to attend school. 

鈥淲e provide coats,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e provide groceries on the weekends.”

鈥榃ill not comply鈥�

Norman, where about 8% of students are English learners, was among the many districts that didn鈥檛 submit any data to the state last summer. Regardless of their needs, Migliorino said, 鈥渆ducators invest in the students who show up in our district.鈥�

Leaders of other districts, including the , and the , pushed back on Walters鈥� demands, saying they haven鈥檛  asked about families鈥� immigration status and don鈥檛 intend to start. 

Bixby Superintendent told 社区黑料 the proposed rule was 鈥渃learly unconstitutional.鈥� 

鈥淏ixby will not comply,鈥� said Miller, an outspoken critic of Walters who is suing him for .

He compared Walters鈥� plan to the state鈥檚 legal battle over a first-in-the-nation religious charter school. While the Oklahoma Supreme Court said the Catholic charter violates the law, the school and the state鈥檚 charter board have appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The court has not yet decided whether to hear the case. 

鈥淚 believe they are trying to create a case for the Trump Supreme Court,鈥� he said.

In , a Texas school district sought to charge tuition to students not 鈥渓egally admitted鈥� to the country. The U.S. Department of Education has long interpreted the court鈥檚 opinion to mean that states 鈥渃annot do anything to chill the atmosphere or to make people feel afraid to send their kids to school,鈥� Sugarman said. 

Oklahoma isn鈥檛 the first state to attempt to curb illegal immigration鈥檚 impact on schools. In 1994, California voters passed Proposition 187, which denied undocumented immigrants access to public education and other services. The measure directed teachers to report students they suspected were undocumented to authorities. But advocates and federal courts found it .

Since then, , Arizona, Maryland and Texas have sought to ask parents about their citizenship, all for the stated purpose of determining how much it costs to serve unauthorized students. Only Alabama鈥檚 law was enacted, but a federal appeals court in 2012, after only a year. 

The issue could prove appealing for the Supreme Court, which took a sharp right turn during President-elect Donald Trump鈥檚 first term. That ideological shift resulted in the end of and the reversal of that gave federal agencies significant leeway to interpret the law. 

鈥淲e have a different court now,鈥� said Sugarman of the Migration Policy Institute. 鈥淭he court鈥檚 willingness to overturn legal precedent means that lots of things are on the table that we wouldn鈥檛 previously [have] thought were in play.鈥�

Attorney general agreement

The education department has until March to submit the rule to the legislature, where both the House and Senate must approve the measure for it to pass. If they don鈥檛 take action, the package automatically goes to the governor to sign.聽

Walters, who frequently clashes with Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond on issues like religion in public schools and education funding, has found common cause with his frequent opponent on the issue of seeking parents鈥� citizenship status. 

鈥淭he Attorney General has said he believes Oklahoma has the right to collect citizenship data in connection with government services,鈥� said spokesman Phil Bacharach.

In a , Drummond, who announced his Monday, spoke about efforts to cooperate with the incoming Trump administration to deport undocumented immigrants who are committing crimes in the state. But he didn鈥檛 address education.

As 鈥減rotected areas or sensitive locations,鈥� schools have been off limits for ICE agents at least . Ignacia Rodriguez Kmec, an attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, said she wasn鈥檛 aware of any past ICE raids at U.S. schools. But that enrollment of Hispanic students in school drops, especially in the elementary grades, when ICE and local law enforcement partner to enforce immigration laws. Following a raid at a Tennessee meatpacking plant in 2019, in the local district were absent.聽

For now, some districts have tried to reassure parents who might be hesitant to enroll their children or send them to school. Oklahoma City Superintendent Jamie Polk issued a statement saying the district鈥檚 schools 鈥渁re a safe and welcoming place for all students, and our mission remains unchanged.鈥�

But the state鈥檚 recommended rule is especially controversial in Tulsa, where conservative Board Member E鈥橪ena Ashley told a Republican group that many English learners are undocumented and could pose a safety risk to other students.

Superintendent Ebony Johnson has tried to put families at ease, saying that rulemaking is a long, drawn-out process.

鈥淭here is a place for you and your children here,鈥� Johnson said in a . 鈥淲e want students here at school every day.鈥�  

In most states, young people overwhelmingly supported pro-abortion ballot measures, even while voting for GOP President-elect Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, according to a new data analysis of young voters in the 2024 election.

Although young people listed the economy and jobs as the most important issue in the election, abortion came in at number two. This was particularly significant given that more than a dozen states had ballot measures related to protecting or codifying access to abortion rights,

In all states for which Tuft University鈥檚 , had reliable data, young voters ages 18-29 overwhelmingly voted in favor of these reproductive rights measures, even as they moved right from the 2020 election, voting for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris by much slimmer margins or 鈥� in Florida and Missouri 鈥� pulling the lever for Trump. 

In Florida, over half (52%) of young voters cast their ballot in favor of ending the state’s six-week abortion ban, despite voting for Trump by a 10-point margin.

Youth activist and chairman of the Jayden D鈥橭nofrio saw this play out live on Florida State University鈥檚 campus on the last day of early voting when he shuttled students to their polling place via golf cart. 

He said he heard from countless young Republicans who voted for Trump 鈥� whose Supreme Court nominees were largely responsible for overturning the constitutional right to an abortion 鈥� yet also supported Amendment 4. If the ballot measure had passed, it would have established a statewide constitutional right to abortion before fetal viability.

鈥淭he first two, three times, it’s like, 鈥極h, OK, that’s interesting. You’re voting for Republicans, but you’re voting yes on four,鈥欌�� he told 社区黑料. 鈥淎nd then after like the first three times, it was just like, 鈥極K, holy crap. You know, how many of you people are there?鈥� 鈥� 

He largely blames the state Democratic party for this disconnect, arguing they failed to message, motivate, or educate youth voters 鈥渙n where we stand on this issue and where Republicans stand on this issue, and as a result, [young Republicans] voted antithetical to their own beliefs.鈥� 

He added that this mismatch was particularly prominent among young people who told him Trump was pro-choice as well.

Harris garnered 43% of the overall vote in Florida, and the ballot measure received 57.2% of the vote. The amendment ultimately didn鈥檛 pass because it didn鈥檛 reach Florida鈥檚 60% threshold. Most states require a simple majority. 

This overwhelming support of pro-abortion rights ballot measures, despite a movement to the right generally in 2024, matches and previous , which found 53% of all young voters identify as pro-choice.

Ruby Belle Booth, a researcher at CIRCLE, said it鈥檚 further evidence of an emerging trend in which young conservatives and Republicans are consistently more liberal than older ones on a few key issues such as climate change and abortion.

鈥淲ith this more conservative electorate, it doesn鈥檛 mean that they鈥檙e more conservative on every single issue,鈥� she said.

Rhea Maniar, a Harvard University freshman and former chair of the said she wasn鈥檛 expecting the 鈥渕agic wand鈥� miracle鈥� of a Harris win in her home state, but she was cautiously optimistic about the ballot measure.

Ultimately, she was left disappointed by her party鈥檚 inability to hit the 60% mark and encouraged leaders to reevaluate their approach to the youth vote generally. 

鈥淭here has to be a reason why folks are willing to put Trump on the top of their ticket and then still vote for abortion,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd I think Democrats are really going to need to take a hard, long look at what鈥檚 happening.鈥� 

The 鈥榝rat boy vote鈥�

Youth turnout this year (42%) was lower than the historic turnout in 2020 鈥� more similarly mirroring that of 2016 鈥� except in the battleground states, where it was much closer to the 50% mark. 

鈥淲hat the turnout in the battlegrounds really shows,鈥� said Booth, 鈥渋s that when young people are engaged in elections and when there鈥檚 a lot of investment in engaging young people in elections they learn to feel like they can make a difference. They feel like their voice matters and they have resources that young people in a lot of other states don鈥檛 have.鈥�

The young people who did turn out to vote were significantly more conservative. Young voters backed Harris overall by a mere 4 points (51% to 47%) but gravitated toward Trump compared to 2020, when they gave President Biden a much larger margin (+25). 

The youth electorate was more Republican than 2020 by 9 percentage points, whereas Democratic-identifying youth dropped by five points. It鈥檚 not yet clear if this indicates an ideological sea change among the youngest generation of voters or a shift in who turned out to vote, said Booth.

鈥淚t just goes to show that there鈥檚 so many different kinds of young people out there with so many different priorities,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd I think for a long time people just assumed that all young people were liberal voters and this election proved that that was not the case. And that鈥檚 something we鈥檝e been saying for a really long time 鈥� but I think not everybody has been listening.鈥�

One thing she believes is clear this early: young voters were driven by issues. Forty percent of young people chose the economy and jobs as their top issue, and those who did so were about 20 points more likely to vote for Trump. Abortion came in second place, followed by immigration in third 鈥� a shift from 2022 when immigration was ranked lower. 

This appears to be a driving factor in the movement toward Trump, who throughout his campaign and is now planning for . Young voters who listed immigration as their top issue supported Trump by a 70-point margin.聽

Early data suggests the migration overall is largely attributable to young men, who supported President Joe Biden over Trump by six points, but voted for Trump by a 14-point margin this time around. Among young white men, that margin ballooned to 28 points.

Black and Asian youth overwhelmingly voted for Harris over Trump by the largest margin 鈥� about 50 points 鈥� while young white voters favored Trump overall (54% to 44%).

The largest shift for any racial or ethnic group of youth between the 2020 and 2024 elections were Latinos, who favored Harris by a 20-point margin this year but went for Biden by a 49-point margin. Young Latino men were 14 points more likely to identify as Republican than they were four years ago, though they still were more likely overall to identify as Democrats.

Youth organizer D鈥橭nofrio, who identifies as 鈥渏ust as a regular, straight white dude who’s 19 years old in Florida,鈥� said he鈥檚 seen this dynamic play out among his male friends, the majority of whom are Republicans.

He said he鈥檚 started to notice that despite supporting some liberal issues 鈥� such as abortion rights 鈥� many of these young men have been of hyper-masculinity that 鈥渕akes them feel good,鈥� which Trump and the Republican party have successfully tapped into.

His peers see Trump going on conservative talk shows, like The Joe Rogan Experience, or engaging with Twitch streamers or billionaire businessmen like Elon Musk. Meanwhile Democrats, he said, are not meeting this demographic where they are, nor do they understand how to talk to them. 

Ultimately, he said, Democrats must recruit strong messengers, with relatable information that they get out on the platforms young men actually engage with.

鈥淚t鈥檚 the frat boy vote,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou know, embracing it is unfortunately the way to do it. But by embracing it, you can actively change their minds on it and show that we鈥檙e regular people [who aren鈥檛] trying to destroy or dilute their vote.鈥�

Correction: Young male voters favored President-elect Donald Trump by a 14-point margin this year. An earlier version of this story had that number at 28, which is the margin by which young white male voters favored Trump.

鈥淒oomed.鈥� 鈥淏affled.鈥� 鈥淪cared.鈥� 鈥淗appy.鈥� 鈥淚 don鈥檛 care.鈥� 鈥淲e are so cooked.鈥�

Those were the reactions to the presidential election result that students scrawled on a white board Wednesday morning inside Joshua Ferguson鈥檚 11th grade government class at Ypsilanti Community High School in Michigan.

Before he knew that former President Donald Trump had won a second term, Ferguson thought he would do a lesson on disinformation in politics. Instead, he gave students room to talk. The most important piece of this lesson, he said, was for his students to feel safe and heard.

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鈥淚 think that鈥檚 my job as a teacher,鈥� he said.

Educators across the country awakened Wednesday to the , then headed into school buildings where students were feeling everything from elation to shock to despair. Some had carefully scripted lesson plans at the ready. Others, like Ferguson, scrapped what they prepared and simply listened.

For civics and social studies teachers who had been monitoring the 2024 presidential election, Wednesday presented both a pedagogical challenge 鈥� and opportunity. Chalkbeat reporters fanned out to schools across the country to see how teachers approached this monumental day.

This story was reported by Caroline Bauman, Gabrielle Birkner, Hannah Dellinger, Jessie Gomez, Dale Mezzacappa, Amelia Pak-Harvey, Carly Sitrin, and Alex Zimmerman.

鈥榃hy do people keep voting for Trump?鈥�

Ahead of his 7:30 a.m. social studies class Wednesday, teacher John Winters had prepared a worksheet to spur conversation.

鈥淎s you know, [fill in the blank] has been elected as the next U.S. President,鈥� the sheet read. 鈥淧lease share your thoughts, feelings, concerns, questions, etc.鈥�

His students at Philadelphia鈥檚 Murrell Dobbins Career & Technical Education High School didn鈥檛 need much prompting.

鈥淗e IS a convicted felon and should鈥檝e never been allowed to run ever again,鈥� wrote one student.

People 鈥渄on鈥檛 want to see a girl/woman be the president,鈥� wrote another.

鈥淲hy do people keep voting for Trump? Especially people that he doesn鈥檛 even like and is racist towards?鈥� still another wrote.

The responses conveyed dismay and fear among some at the 800-student technical school, which is 89% Black and located in the city鈥檚 lowest income ZIP code.

At the end of the class, one junior held back to talk to Winters. Anxiety, even fear, was written all over his face as he struggled for words.

He asked a series of questions, like how many bills a president could pass and how an impeached president could be elected again. Winters answered but sensed there was something larger the boy wanted to know.

鈥淚 was born here, but I鈥檓 scared for my parents,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e from Haiti. It鈥檚 bad there right now.鈥�

Winters reminded him that strongly Democratic Philadelphia has been a sanctuary city, meaning it doesn鈥檛 always cooperate with the federal government in enforcing immigration law. He told the young man to clarify with his parents their status. But then, reluctantly, he added: 鈥淚 can鈥檛 lie, it鈥檚 a concerning situation.鈥�

The boy put his head down, and slowly walked to his next class.

A rightward shift, especially among boys

At The Global Learning Collaborative, a high school situated in the deep-blue Upper West Side of Manhattan, students reacted to Trump鈥檚 victory with a mix of fear, ambivalence 鈥� and support.

More than 70% of the school鈥檚 students are Latino, and many expressed alarm over Trump鈥檚 anti-immigrant rhetoric. But there was still a sizable number of students who supported the Republican candidate during a mock election held during a Wednesday morning assembly: 136 students voted for Vice President Kamala Harris, while 70 supported Trump.

Junior Alix Torres said she has undocumented relatives and worries about his promise to .

鈥淚 woke up kind of angry this morning,鈥� Torres said, noting that she helped persuade some family members to vote for Harris. 鈥淚 hope he hears the public and chooses to not go through with that. We built this country.鈥�

Others at The Global Learning Collaborative said they supported Trump or didn鈥檛 have a firm opinion of him; nearly all were under 10 years old during his first presidency.

Senior Sara Otero, who is 18, voted for the first time on Tuesday, casting a ballot for the former president. A devout Christian, Otero said she believed Trump would preserve religious liberty, though she hadn鈥檛 followed the election closely.

鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 as educated as I wish I was on the whole thing,鈥� she said.

Harris decisively won New York City, but . Civics teacher Martin Gloster said he has seen a rightward shift in political attitudes in his classroom.

鈥淚 think teenage boys are really attracted to that strongman presence,鈥� he said.

Gloster said he has struggled with teaching contemporary politics, including the presidential debate in which Trump Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs. In a class that discussed the debate, one student had faced an arduous journey emigrating from Guatemala, while others were more sympathetic to Trump.

鈥淚t鈥檚 difficult because obviously I play it down the middle 鈥� Trump is just a different thing,鈥� Gloster said. 鈥淚鈥檓 learning on the fly. I don鈥檛 have all the answers.鈥�

Taking lessons from Gore鈥檚 2000 concession speech

When Reid Stuart arrived for his first class on Wednesday, he had three goals for students: Give space to process this huge political moment, impart tools to 鈥� and watch Al Gore鈥檚 concession speech from 2000.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an incredible speech, by a Tennessean, after a tense moment that calls for unity,鈥� said Stuart, who teaches at Crosstown High School, a diverse public charter school in Memphis, Tennessee. 鈥淚t feels relevant.鈥�

His students in AP Human Geography settled into class, some joking with each other about the election and others speaking somberly.

Before watching , Stuart asked: What did his students expect from a conceding presidential candidate?

鈥淭o show respect to the other candidate.鈥� 鈥淭o show respect for the system.鈥� 鈥淭o actually concede,鈥� students chimed in.

Stuart then asked, 鈥淚f you are Al Gore, how are you feeling?鈥�

鈥淐heated.鈥� 鈥淢ad.鈥� 鈥淯naccepting of loss.鈥� 鈥淏itter.鈥�

Gore, a Democrat, gave his speech more than a month after the 2000 Election Day and after .

Stuart asked his students what they thought of Gore鈥檚 delivery and message.

鈥淚 think he was being sarcastic,鈥� said one student. 鈥淟ike you could tell he didn鈥檛 really believe what he was saying, and felt like he should have won, but he still called for unity and respect.鈥�

As other students in the room nodded in agreement, Stuart said: 鈥淭his is a hallmark of a free and fair election, that the person who lost, can get up there and offer a unifying message, even if he is bitter. Right?鈥�

He noted that later Wednesday. 鈥淚 encourage you to watch it,鈥� he told students. 鈥淪ee if she has the same message of unification and moving forward, even though you can guarantee she is feeling deeply about the loss.鈥�

An election that turned on grocery prices and utility bills

Philadelphia social studies teacher Charlie McGeehan prepared for every election outcome 鈥� but, he admitted to his students Wednesday morning, 鈥渢his is not what I expected.鈥�

When he went to bed Tuesday night before midnight, McGeehan had anticipated explaining to the juniors and seniors in his classes about how long vote counting can take. About how we might not know the outcome of the election for several days. About the role deep-blue Philadelphia would play in deciding the election.

By the time he woke on Wednesday, that plan was moot. So, he figured, let鈥檚 just give the students 鈥� many of whom had spent long hours working the polls the day prior 鈥� space to decompress.

Together, they combed through the election results guided by students鈥� questions like 鈥淗ow was the polling yesterday so surprising?鈥� 鈥淲hich state did the race ultimately come down to?鈥� and 鈥淒oes Kamala Harris have any path to winning at all?鈥�

To that last question, McGeehan was straightforward: 鈥淣o, she doesn鈥檛.鈥�

Many of McGeehan鈥檚 students at the Academy at Palumbo are first- or second-generation Americans or immigrants. On notecards, students laid out their more personal fears, ones they didn鈥檛 necessarily want to share with the class.

鈥淎s a woman and a child of an immigrant, I鈥檓 honestly scared鈥� read one. 鈥淚 saw a post saying how Trump pledged to launch mass deportation鈥� which makes me feel like not researching more because of how much more sick stuff I might read,鈥� said another.

One said 鈥淚 feel great because Trump鈥檚 [positions] align with what I want. Especially with the issues of censorship, grocery prices, and utility bills.鈥�

鈥楰ind of a very depressing day鈥�

Nehemiah Legrand tried to eat dinner Tuesday but couldn鈥檛 finish. She was glued to her phone. She was up until 3 a.m.

The 13-year-old student at Enlace Academy, a pre-K-8 school in the International Marketplace area of Indianapolis, is an American citizen by birth whose parents are legally living in the country. The family fled Haiti after her older brother was kidnapped in 2020 amid the country鈥檚 political turmoil.

Still, Trump鈥檚 campaign rhetoric around immigration scared Nehemiah 鈥� and made her fear that her family would be deported.

鈥淚 just feel like today 鈥� it doesn鈥檛 feel normal,鈥� she said, sitting in the school鈥檚 hallway on Wednesday, looking out the window at the rain. 鈥淧eople are not talkative or none of that. It鈥檚 very, very strange. It鈥檚 kind of a very depressing day. Because everyone just doesn鈥檛 know what鈥檚 going to happen next, and you can tell everyone is stressed.鈥�

The presidential election has over her and her classmates at the school, where many students come from Latin America and Haiti. At this school, students have to grow up fast. Many carry trauma from their immigration to the United States, said lead social worker Hailey Butchart.

Now, students like Nehemiah are preparing for what the next four years with Trump 鈥� whose platform includes deploying 鈥渢he largest deportation operation in American history鈥� 鈥� will mean for them.

鈥淎 lot of the students I speak with have had a family member that has been deported, and they live with that fear as well,鈥� Butchart said.

The power of social media in elections

On the morning after Election Day, Zy鈥橝sia Weathers rolled over in bed to grab her phone on a nearby nightstand and scrolled through TikTok.

But instead of seeing videos of makeup reviews or the latest trends, Zy鈥橝sia鈥檚 feed was filled with women and girls crying about the outcome of Tuesday鈥檚 election and the potential impact on female reproductive rights.

鈥淧eople were even saying, like, very vague things, like, just thinking the worst of the worst,鈥� added Zy鈥橝sia, 17, a senior at KIPP Newark Collegiate Academy.

Throughout the school day Wednesday, Zy鈥橝sia and her peers talked about other videos they saw, like people celebrating former president Donald Trump鈥檚 reelection and others questioning what his victory would mean for the nation.

Zy鈥橝sia is also the president of her school鈥檚 Student Government Association, and on Wednesday, the group met to discuss the presidential outcomes. Yanibel Feliz, the advisor of the group, walked students through an exercise to discuss the election process, the outcome, and the effect of social media.

Some students said they were shocked about Trump鈥檚 victory because they had seen much support for Harris on social media.

鈥淪ometimes, social media might paint a picture of how elections will go,鈥� said Trinity Douglas, a junior at the school, during class. 鈥淏ut it has a big effect on our generation.鈥�

鈥業鈥檓 afraid what will happen to my family鈥�

The icebreaker in Joel Snyder鈥檚 government classes on Wednesday was to respond to the prompt: 鈥淚 am feeling 鈥� because 鈥︹��

The responses were wide-ranging and included students who were enthusiastic about the election outcome and those who were disappointed the U.S. would not, after all, elect a woman as president.

In the few minutes they were given, students took pencil to paper and wrote that they were 鈥渟hocked鈥� to hear how well Trump did with Latinos, 鈥渇urious鈥� at what they saw as sexism in the results, and 鈥渃oncerned鈥� that America had once again elected a man whose flaws and felony convictions are, by now, well known.

Some answers hit closer to home. 鈥淚 am feeling uneasy,鈥� one student wrote, 鈥渂ecause I鈥檓 afraid what will happen to my family who are undocumented.鈥�

Standing at the front of his class at 脕nimo Pat Brown Charter High School in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood of South Los Angeles, the teacher reminded his students that whether or not they are U.S. citizens, they have 鈥渢he duty to be the protectors of democracy and of each other.鈥� Snyder teaches about 140 students across five government classes, including one AP course. Of the roughly 600 students enrolled at 脕nimo Pat Brown, almost all of them are Hispanic 鈥� their families hailing from Mexico, Guatemala, and elsewhere in Latin America.

Snyder also asked his students to write down one issue that they care about and how they think Trump鈥檚 election might impact it. The students chose abortion rights, the economy, constitutional norms, and, again and again, immigration. They shared their fears of mass deportations and stories of family members who had waited years for green cards they may never get.

鈥淢y main concern is how, even despite being a citizen, I still won鈥檛 be protected because my parents are immigrants,鈥� Natalie, 17, a student in Snyder鈥檚 AP U.S. Government and Politics class, told Chalkbeat.

This was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

鈥淲e can’t exit this decade with students, in particular low-income students, performing worse than they were performing when they entered the decade,鈥� said Kevin Huffman, CEO of Accelerate, a nonprofit funding academic recovery efforts. 鈥淢y biggest fear is just that people will use the Department of Education as a battering ram for other issues and not use it as a force to take on academic outcomes for kids.鈥�

The Republican nominee, declaring this the 鈥済olden age of America,鈥� in battleground states, like Georgia and Florida, than he did in 2020. As expected, Republicans flipped the Senate and will hold at least a 52-seat majority, with a few races left to call. Control of the House remains undecided. 

Observers expect Trump to immediately nullify the Biden administration鈥檚 Title IX rule that extends protections against discrimination to LGBTQ students. 

Those who campaigned for Trump, and agree with his promises to end in schools, celebrated his comeback.

鈥淎merican parents voted for their children鈥檚 future,鈥� Tiffany Justice, co-founder of the conservative Moms for Liberty advocacy group, . Her name is already among those being tossed around as a possible . She told 社区黑料 that she 鈥渨ould be honored to serve the next president of the United States of America.鈥�

Most clues about Trump鈥檚 early priorities come from the conservative Heritage Foundation鈥檚 , or Project 2025. In addition to eliminating Title I funding for low-income students and Head Start for preschoolers from poor families, the plan would remove references to LGBTQ people throughout federal policy.

But even if Washington ends up with a GOP trifecta and federal appointees handpicked by Heritage, the president-elect might not be able to deliver on some of his more bold promises to dismantle the education department and of illegal immigrants.

鈥淪ome of this rhetoric will be tempered with reality once the administration changes,鈥� said Keri Rodrigues, president of the National Parents Union. 鈥淭his is a president that we are very accustomed to. I understand people are nervous; they’re very concerned. But when it comes down to it, there’s also the reality of governing.鈥�

Eliminating the education department, for example, would require 60 votes in the Senate and would likely be unpopular in the House as well, even if Republicans are still in control, said David Cleary, a former Republican Senate education staffer now working for a left-leaning lobbying firm.

鈥淭he votes wouldn’t materialize,鈥� he said.

Michael Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, added that 鈥渄raconian cuts鈥� in spending would also be difficult to pass. That鈥檚 why Trump is expected to accomplish some of his conservative agenda through executive orders.

鈥淟et’s assume that there is no grand reawakening to the problems that America faces and people stay in their partisan foxholes,鈥� Cleary said. 鈥淭rump will have to take a page out of [President Joe Biden鈥檚] playbook and do a lot by executive action and regulatory plans.鈥�

That would include halting enforcement of Biden鈥檚 Title IX rule 鈥� which, because of litigation from Republican-led governors, currently applies to only 24 states. Officials would likely restart the process of restoring the 2020 regulation completed under former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, which narrowed the definition of sexual assault and expanded due process rights for the accused.

One LGBTQ advocacy organization called Trump鈥檚 victory 鈥渁n immediate threat.鈥�

鈥淭oday, many in our community feel a profound sense of loss and concern for the future,鈥� Melanie Willingham-Jaggers, executive director of GLSEN, said in a statement, pointing to Heritage鈥檚 Project 2025 as the blueprint for how Trump would roll back policies that allow trans students to play on sports teams or use restrooms that match their gender identity. 鈥淲ith these changes, our young people could face increased discrimination, reduced access to safe spaces and diminished legal recognition.鈥�

Trump, a and, at 78, the oldest candidate ever elected president, is also expected to push for private school choice, perhaps along the lines of the $5,000 that passed a House committee in September. But despite the GOP鈥檚 enthusiasm for vouchers and education savings accounts, which allow parents to use public funds for private school tuition and homeschooling expenses, some advocates would like to see greater support for the charter sector.

Petrilli, a self-described 鈥渘ever-Trumper,鈥� said he鈥檚 worried about returning to 鈥渢he political dynamics鈥� of Trump鈥檚 first term, which didn鈥檛 benefit charter schools.

鈥淩eform-oriented Democrats were sidelined or silenced,鈥� he said. 鈥淕iven that there are a lot of kids in blue states like California, New York, and Illinois who desperately need high-quality educational options, this would be a terrible development.鈥�

But Rodrigues sees some bright spots in Republicans鈥� focus on parental rights and school choice. 鈥淭hose things can be positive when not taken to the extreme,鈥� she said.

She鈥檚 encouraged by the prospect of Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana becoming chair of the Senate education committee, where he has already highlighted the importance of improving . 

While the National Parents Union has had close interaction with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and the White House, she said leaders have had ongoing 鈥渄eep conversations鈥� with those on both sides of the aisle.

鈥淧rogress will be made for children in any and all conditions, regardless of what happens in the House and the change up in the Senate,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think the depth of our relationships are not confined to one particular party.鈥�

This story was published in collaboration with Headway, a new initiative at The New York Times. Chalkbeat and Headway have been to educators and high school students since February. We have heard from more than 1,000 students and 200 teachers across the nation.

This presidential election year, young Americans are navigating a chaotic world of information, often with limited tools to distinguish what鈥檚 credible, what鈥檚 questionable, and what鈥檚 downright false.

A found that while many young people can detect images generated by artificial intelligence with ease, they struggle to differentiate news from commentary and advertisements and regularly encounter conspiracy theories on social media. Eight in 10 respondents said they believed at least one of those conspiracy theories.

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and their peers told us that they regularly encountered false information online about the election between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald J. Trump. Some teachers have dedicated and fact-checking.

And many students have told us they have gained confidence in spotting falsehoods. We asked more than 1,000 students about what tips them off that a piece of information might be false or misleading, what鈥檚 their approach to verifying information, and what advice they have for other teenagers. Here鈥檚 what we heard.

Responses have been edited and condensed for length and clarity.

How teens know if information is sketchy, made up or manipulated

鈥淚f the content I鈥檓 seeing is triggering an extreme emotional reaction in me 鈥� rage, fear or joy, to name a few 鈥� without offering nuanced context, it leads me to think that it might be designed to mislead. When I encounter something that seems absolutely certain about morally and politically complex topics, such as the Israel-Hamas war, without acknowledging alternative views or uncertainties, I suspect it鈥檚 oversimplifying reality to push an agenda.鈥�

鈥� Sena Chang, 18

College freshman at Princeton University in New Jersey

鈥淎rticles that sound sketchy, made up, or manipulated are a red flag. Some media sources get rid of the bits and pieces of context that make a situation understandable. And media outlets sometimes contradict each other. Check and cross-check media. When a true piece of media spreads like wildfire, some media outlets will try and get attention from the situation and end up spreading lies about the situation. That鈥檚 why I find most articles about popular controversies annoyingly eye-rolling.鈥�

鈥� Antonette Davis, 14

Freshman at Central High School in Philadelphia

A single source doesn鈥檛 cut it for verifying what鈥檚 true

鈥淚 verify my information by getting it from multiple sources, not just people online who are crediting the original article I read. I also look at the information presented in the article from the perspective of a person who doesn鈥檛 know anything about the topic and see if the article and the ideas presented still make sense.鈥�

鈥� Yoni Zacks, 17

Senior at the Blake School in Minneapolis.

鈥淢ore often than not I look it up on Google and read about it on a more reliable website. For example, if an article makes a claim about a piece of legislation, I try to find the full text of the cited legislation to better understand what it鈥檚 saying.鈥�

鈥� Olivia Garrison, 17

Graduated in 2023 from Davidson Academy in Reno, Nevada

鈥淭here鈥檚 a tool called Google Reverse Image Search that I use to check the origins of viral images or memes to see where they first appeared and if they鈥檝e been repurposed out of context. During events like the presidential debate, I also looked at multiple websites offering real-time fact-checking like The New York Times to help contextualize what I was hearing and identify when what the candidates were saying was misinformation.鈥�

鈥� Sena Chang

鈥淭o verify information, I try to listen directly to candidates or their campaigns. I find this is the easiest way to understand the candidate鈥檚 policy plans, opinions on certain issues, and overall decorum. While commentary can be helpful, it often includes opinions that make me perceive certain things a certain way. Therefore, I find it important to directly hear from a political candidate first. Afterward, I listen to and watch video media with commentary. It helps me compare my understanding to someone else鈥檚 and clarify things I might not have fully understood.鈥�

鈥� Meghan Pierce, 18

Freshman at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois

How young people navigate a world of misinformation

鈥淎s a teenager, I get a lot of my information from social media. I know many other teenagers get their information this way, too, so my word of advice is to be aware of the algorithm and how you鈥檙e fed information usually from one side. You鈥檙e not getting the complete story, so do your research instead of trusting one source!鈥�

鈥� Emma Luu, 17

Junior at Pine Creek High School in Colorado Springs, Colorado

鈥淐heck anything you think is misleading with a quick search and cross-check if it鈥檚 legitimate or not.鈥�

鈥� Arnav Goyal, 14

Freshman at Olentangy Liberty High School in Powell, Ohio

鈥淏ecome aware of media bias, and do your best to consider different perspectives and stay open-minded while being aware of media bias.鈥�

鈥� Lucas Robbins, 17

Senior at Mandela International Magnet School in Santa Fe, New Mexico

鈥淢y (unpopular) take is that fact-checking is easier than it seems. 鈥� 鈥婼ocial media serves as an integral egalitarian news source where anyone can create and share primary source information no matter where they live in the world. However, using social media as a sole source of information can be dangerous. Sometimes even recognizing satirical news sources is hard 鈥� I have been a victim of thinking The Onion was a real news source. You don鈥檛 have to research every single headline you ever see. The internet can be an overload of information at times, and choosing to disconnect is a skill young people need. However, if you see something that raises eyebrows, understanding the context is just a Google search away.鈥�

鈥� Kush Kaur, 17

Freshman at Collin College in McKinney, Texas

Teenagers are inundated daily with a mix of credible information and fake news. Out of necessity, they鈥檙e sharpening their instincts to identify misinformation and building skills to verify or debunk it. Their advice is clear: Stay mindful of algorithmic influence, avoid relying on a single source, and remember that it鈥檚 OK to step back when it all feels overwhelming.

Need more insights? Explore the resources below.

Caroline Bauman is the deputy managing editor for engagement at Chalkbeat. Reach her at cbauman@chalkbeat.org.

Erica Meltzer is the national editor at Chalkbeat, where she covers education policy and politics. Reach her at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org

This was originally published by . Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at .

He praised a new breed of 鈥減atriot pastors鈥� who are mobilizing the faithful to engage in 鈥渂iblical citizenship鈥� by voting and getting involved on school boards. He鈥檚 among the far right religious who say former President Donald Trump is God鈥檚 choice for president and that Christians should not only participate in government and politics, but .

Republican leaders have spent a lot of energy this year putting those words into action. Much of the spotlight has been on Oklahoma state Superintendent Ryan Walters, who mandated that schools stock classrooms with Bibles. Louisiana passed a law requiring schools to post the 10 Commandments in classrooms, the subject of , while the Texas Education Agency has proposed a reading curriculum that includes stories from the Old and New testaments. 

But the question of whether those ideas will resonate with Christian voters on Nov. 5 is harder to answer.

One suggests they might not. On a long list of concerns influencing Christians this election, public schools ranked near the bottom, with less than 30% choosing it as a reason to vote for a presidential candidate. The economy and border security topped the list for at least 60% of voters. 

A lot of churchgoers are 鈥渟till leery of bringing Christianity overtly into public institutions,鈥� said George Barna, who runs the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, a small conservative college outside Phoenix. 鈥淭hey are more likely to desire the freedom to believe and practice their faith of choice, with their family, as they desire, without government intrusion.鈥�

His recent poll suggests that many practicing Christians are so disillusioned by both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump that they may not even vote. Barna estimated that as many as 104 million 鈥減eople of faith鈥� 鈥� and of those, roughly 32 million regular churchgoers 鈥� won鈥檛 show up at the polls. 

Trump tried to shore up his support among the faithful this week during a with conservative pastors, suggesting a failed assassination attempt against him in July was a sign. 鈥淕od saved me for a purpose,鈥� he said. Conservative leaders are counting on Christians to support their preferred candidates 鈥� up and down the ballot. 

Walters co-authored an earlier this year with Steve Deace, a conservative talk show host, and David Barton, whose organization teaches history from a Christian perspective. In grave terms, they urged Christians to vote for Trump if they want schools to embrace their values.

鈥淐hurches and community groups must transform into centers of evangelical activism, educating and equipping members to take a stand in this cultural and spiritual battle,鈥� they wrote. 鈥淭he election ahead is more than a political contest; it is our opportunity to affirm our commitment to our nation鈥檚 Judeo-Christian values.鈥�

But that message doesn鈥檛 always grab voters, said Kendal Sachierri, a conservative Republican running for state Senate in Oklahoma and a former Spanish teacher. A Second Amendment advocate, she defeated an incumbent who to increase penalties for having a gun on school property. 

When she was going door-to-door during the primary, Sachierri said she talked to voters who were unhappy with public schools.

鈥淏ut no one was like, 鈥榃e need Bibles in the classroom,鈥� 鈥� she said. When she taught at聽Newcastle High School, south of Oklahoma City, she had both English and Spanish versions of the Bible available for students. 鈥淒id I ever make a kid use it? No.鈥�

鈥楤iblical foundation鈥�

In local races this year, there have been signs that the public鈥檚 support for candidates who align with fundamentalist Christian groups is waning. School board hopefuls backed by Moms for Liberty haven鈥檛 fared nearly as well in primary races as they did two years ago when they earned school board seats across the country. 

The organization primarily advocates against lessons on gender and sexuality, but their summit last year also featured Tim Barton, David Barton鈥檚 son and Wallbuilders president. He preached that depends on rebuilding its 鈥渂iblical foundation.鈥� 

Whether Christian voters have tired of such rhetoric enough to stay home on Election Day is hard to forecast, said Michael Emerson, a religion and public policy researcher at Rice University. 

鈥淎ttempting to estimate who will vote and who will not is unreliable,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s we have seen in the past, especially with Trump, people often say they are not voting, or not voting for him, to pollsters, but then go ahead and vote for him.鈥�

Christians, in fact, have an on elections, he said. 

That鈥檚 especially true in Texas, where frequently mix. In conservative communities, it鈥檚 almost expected that a candidate鈥檚 platform will include references to Christianity, said Calvin Jillison, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. 

鈥淚f you’re in a red district, you better be able to speak about these issues in a way that you know voters will respond,鈥� he said. 

The state鈥檚 official calls for schools to require instruction from the Bible, and wealthy conservative donors have thrown their support behind candidates who espouse a 鈥溾�� in public schools. 

They include state school board candidate Brandon Hall, a political newcomer who wants to emulate Walters鈥檚 effort in Oklahoma to purchase classroom Bibles.

鈥淭his is amazing. Let鈥檚 do it in Texas!鈥� he wrote on .

For Hall, who identified himself as a pastor in campaign documents but also works for a , promising to promote in schools was a winning strategy. He sailed past a 22-year incumbent in the March primary with over 53% of the vote in a Fort Worth-area district.

Since then, he鈥檚 been busy promoting the Texas Education Agency鈥檚 new K-5 reading curriculum that features Bible stories and emphasizes the evangelism of the nation鈥檚 founding. As 社区黑料 first reported in May, critics say it doesn鈥檛 reflect the religious diversity of Texas students and borders on proselytizing. (Wallnau has on X to ask state board members to vote for it next month.)

鈥淲hy do liberals hate the new curriculum so much? Second graders will learn courage through the story of Queen Esther,鈥� Hall in September after speaking to a community group about the program.

Hall didn鈥檛 respond to voicemails or messages on Facebook 鈥� and hasn鈥檛 participated in candidate interviews with .

鈥淢aybe he鈥檚 not concerned,鈥� considering the makeup of the board has shifted more in recent years, said Rayna Glaser, his Democratic opponent. 

But as she attends campaign events and house gatherings to meet voters, she鈥檚 hoping that Christians will consider what could happen if the public school curriculum becomes subsumed by theology. 

鈥淲e’ve got the Quran. We’ve got the Book of Mormon. Do you want Satan in there? Because I know you don’t want Satanism being taught in school,鈥� she said. 鈥淎s a Christian woman who believes in God and believes the Bible, I feel like if you open [schools] to one, you really have to open them to others.鈥�

Yes, it鈥檚 that serious, which is why Kamala Harris urgently needs to do something she should have done months ago: seize what appears to be a 鈥渞ed鈥� issue and run with it. Make it her own. Send a message to those right-leaning independent voters who still see her as a San Francisco liberal.

Harris has the perfect issue staring right at her: the indisputable fact that in K-12 schools, lag far behind in earning college degrees and enter the workforce frightfully ill equipped for a modern economy.

Many of those failure-to-launch boys turn into failed-to-thrive adults, who today wear red 鈥淢ake America Great Again鈥� baseball hats.

Talking up the problem is a win-win for Harris. Yes, it will anger teachers unions and groups such as the American Association of University Women, who persist in denying the obvious, that boys, not girls, are in trouble.

That public anger is pretty much the point. The louder they protest the better. Besides, most of those teachers and activists already voted early for Harris. And it might help to recenter a race where men are rapidly shifting red while women move into the blue camp. 

Will talking about the boy troubles lose female voters? Not necessarily. College women, for example, can look around their campuses, where they make up as much as 60% of the student body, and sense that imbalance as detracting from their own fuller experience of young adulthood. 

But it just might sway some independent male voters, who clearly worry about Harris鈥檚 true allegiances. Weighing in on the boys, an issue implausibly seen as a red cause (mostly because so many progressives insist that boys don鈥檛 need help) can only help. 

The final win-win: The hardest hit among all males are minorities, the very group Harris is having trouble reaching.

Other than revealing she owns a Glock, Harris hasn鈥檛 sent out any firm signals that she鈥檚 not a San Francisco progressive. And appearing on air with Howard Stern, toying with an interview with Joe Rogan and sitting down for some tense exchanges with Fox鈥檚 Brett Baier doesn鈥檛 cut it.

The boy troubles, an ideal choice for Harris, is not a new issue. My book, was published in 2011, one of several books around that time to lay out the problem.

My research focused on schools failing to teach literacy skills to boys 鈥� in part by pushing literacy at early ages when boys aren鈥檛 ready. Thus, by third grade boys were made to feel like academic underachievers. Understandably, they lost interest in school and dug into video games. Other books focused on the rising rate of fatherless families and the increasing confusion over what it means to be a man, all important contributors to the problem.

Today, the best updates on the gender problems come from author Richard Reeves, who formed the . If anything, the boys’ issues have deepened since my book. Some examples he cites:

• In high school, two thirds of the highest GPA students are girls; two thirds of the lowest scorers are boys.

• In 1972, men were 13 percentage points more likely than women to earn a college degree. Today, women are 15 percentage points more likely to earn a bachelor鈥檚 degree.

• In 1979, the weekly earnings of the typical American man who completed high school was, in today鈥檚 dollars, $1,017. Today it is $881.

• Deaths among working-class men, what鈥檚 often called 鈥渄eaths of despair,鈥� have risen from 60 per 100,000 in 1991 to 191 per 100,000 by 2022.

So how does Harris seize this issue? I鈥檒l leave that to the political pros, but some obvious options include showing up at a college with lopsided gender gaps to demand answers. 

Or, she could visit a rural county health office in a Trumpy state where the suicide rate among working-class men has soared. Unfortunately, that won鈥檛 be hard to find. Again, demand answers. 

Done properly, with gusto, she鈥檒l have her against-the-grain moment, but Harris better act fast. We are two weeks away from what will likely be the closest presidential race in U.S. history and its outcome could turn on whether Harris can reach these disaffected boys-to-men.

The issue is not new, but the numbers are trending in the wrong direction: A shows 19.2% of children lived in food-insecure households in 2023, the second consecutive yearly increase following a 15-year low , when just 10.2% of children lived in food-insecure households. The spikes came as pandemic-era policies expired, like the Enhanced Child Tax Credit in 2021 and emergency allotments for SNAP in 2023. 

This is unacceptable, especially when the U.S. has the tools to end child hunger.

Free school meals have been around for more than 50 years. Both Democrats and Republicans have acknowledged that well-nourished kids achieve better academically, and everyone benefits from a stronger economy and greater national security, when children are fed.

For the first time in a long time, the role of school meals in eliminating hunger made it into the national conversation when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz while accepting the Democratic nomination for vice president.

While it may be unusual for hunger in the classroom to make a prominent appearance in a presidential campaign, it鈥檚 not unusual for an educator 鈥� which Walz was for many years 鈥� to insist that food is the most important school supply. For many kids, school meals are the most nutritious of the day, helping to fuel their success in the classroom and beyond.

Good work is happening across the country to reach more students with school meals. At least eight states, including Minnesota, have made school meals universal, meaning they鈥檙e available to all students regardless of family income. Others, like Texas, are getting rid of categories of need 鈥� making meals programs run more efficiently, reducing the stigma of receiving free or low-cost meals and feeding .

For decades, barely half of students who got free or reduced-price lunch also ate breakfast at school. Now, many schools have embraced breakfast-after-the-bell options, like letting kids eat in class during first period or offering grab-and-go options. This overcomes the challenge of getting to the cafeteria before school starts, and the stigma in doing so.

And in summer, when schools are closed, new flexibility in rural communities is allowing food service providers to reach many more kids with meals thanks to pick-up and delivery options.

These innovations and policy wins have helped feed millions more children each day.

But with food prices unusually high 鈥� an issue acknowledged by presidential candidates of both parties 鈥� lawmakers on both sides of the aisle must come together and support an anti-hunger agenda.

Just as school meals are an important part of a vision for a country without child hunger, so are investments in programs that connect families with the economic resources they need.

This year, Congress had the opportunity to expand the Child Tax Credit and extend a lifeline to families with very little income, ensuring they could receive the full refundable credit for every kid in the household and ultimately reducing . But though the measure passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the House, it was blocked in the Senate. With major tax policy negotiations on the horizon in 2025, lawmakers should prioritize reinstating an expanded Child Tax Credit.

When lawmakers make feeding children a priority, families get transformational improvements like the new Summer EBT program that launched this year, providing food assistance to the families of an estimated 22 million kids. It鈥檚 the first new federal nutrition program in decades, working alongside traditional summer meals offerings to make sure kids get the food they need during the hungriest time of year. 

Yet, in this first year, 13 states did not participate, leaving money on the table that could have fed an and helped their families stretch their food budgets. Summer EBT is a tremendous opportunity to end hunger when school is out. All 50 states must opt in.

Federal nutrition programs and tax benefits for working families are really investments in opportunity for everyone. School meals create the opportunity to learn. Summer EBT creates the opportunity for families to eat healthy all year round. The Child Tax Credit creates opportunities to achieve economic mobility. And the aspiration for opportunity truly is universal.These programs aren’t just good policy; they鈥檙e good politics, too. conducted statewide polls this year in , , and , and in all four states, respondents were nearly unanimous (93% agreement or above) that ending childhood hunger should be a shared bipartisan goal. In an election year that鈥檚 likely to see precincts won on slim margins, it鈥檚 prudent that aspiring leaders keep this in mind.

鈥淚鈥檓 directing the members of my cabinet to return to me within 110 days with resources and information for schools to improve active-shooter drills, minimize this harm, create age-appropriate content and communicate with parents before and after these drills happen,鈥� Biden said during a Thursday afternoon White House event. 鈥淲e just have to do better and we can do better.鈥� 

Students nationwide participate in active-shooter drills, between school districts and have received mixed reviews as to their effectiveness from students, parents and educators. In some states, including New York, lawmakers have sought to scale back routine drills amid concerns they鈥檝e exacerbated the youth mental health crisis. A approved this summer bans realistic drills that use props and actors to mimic real-world school shooting scenarios. 

Biden also ordered on Thursday the creation of a new task force to assess the threat of conversion kits that allow semi-automatic guns to be modified into fully automatic weapons, so-called 鈥済host guns鈥� without serial numbers and weapons created with 3D printers. 

The efforts fit into the president鈥檚 agenda to toughen gun laws and prevent mass shootings. The Rose Garden announcement also featured Vice President Kamala Harris, who in a tight presidential race against Republican Donald Trump has positioned herself as a gun owning-Democrat in favor of stricter firearms restrictions. Trump has the endorsement of the National Rifle Association.  

鈥淚t is a false choice to suggest you are either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone鈥檚 guns away,鈥� Harris said. 鈥淚 am in favor of the Second Amendment and I believe we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban and pass universal background checks, safe storage laws and red flag laws.鈥� 

Active shooter drills have become routine in schools nationwide although a White House fact sheet notes there is 鈥渧ery limited research on how to design and deploy鈥� them in a way that鈥檚 effective without becoming harmful in themselves. Though the executive order doesn鈥檛 mandate the drills or specific strategies on how to conduct them, it directs the U.S. Education Department and the Department of Homeland Security to publish a report outlining the existing research on their efficacy, how to design them in ways that are age-appropriate and 鈥渉ow to prevent students and educators from experiencing trauma or psychological stress associated with these drills.鈥� 

Rob Wilcox, the deputy director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, told 社区黑料 on Wednesday that the variation in how drills are being conducted presents a need for federal officials to analyze their usefulness and provide guidance around the best path forward. 

Along with 鈥渢raditional lockdown drills鈥� where students are instructed to shelter in place behind closed doors, he said the Biden administration has been warned about the psychological harms of 鈥渦nannounced simulations鈥� where 鈥渇ake guns, fake blood, fake gunshots鈥� and a militarized police response are used to portray real-world assaults. 

鈥淭he president and vice president have heard from parents and students across the country about the need to know more about these drills and the need to really understand what our kids are going through,鈥� Wilcox said. 鈥淲hat is the effective way to do it and what are the harmful ways?鈥�

Traumatizing 鈥� or empowering? 

Teachers are split on the value of active-shooter drills, according to released this month. Fewer than half of educators said the drills have prepared them for a school shooting. More than two-thirds said they have had no impact on their perceptions of campus safety and just a fifth said they made them feel more safe.

A Pew Research Center survey found that a quarter of teachers experienced lockdowns in the 2022-23 school year because of gun incidents at their campuses. While 39% of teachers gave their schools a fair or poor job of training them to deal with active assailants, a smaller share 鈥� 30% 鈥� gave their school leadership an excellent or very good rating.

About two-thirds of parents of K-12 students say that children should be required to participate in at least one active-shooter drill per year and 83% were confident their kids鈥� schools were well equipped to keep them safe, released last fall. While 80% of respondents said the drill should be 鈥渆vidence-based and age-appropriate,鈥� just 36% said they should feature the sounds of guns or gunshots. 

that active-shooter drills , but other researchers have sought to combat that narrative. A in the peer-reviewed Journal of School Violence found children exposed to gun violence feel safer after undergoing lockdown drills. 

Research into the psychological impact of active-shooter drills and lockdown drills has generally treated all procedures as one in the same, said Jaclyn Schildkraut, the lead author of the Journal of School Violence report and executive director of the Regional Gun Violence Research Consortium at New York鈥檚 Rockefeller Institute of Government. Given that schools have deployed a range of drills 鈥� and because some efforts may be more effective than others 鈥� she said it鈥檚 鈥渧ery important that we do have very clear guidance about what schools are being asked to do.鈥�

Drills that seek to mimic active shootings have, in particular, become a point of controversy. In one in 2019, teachers reported injuries after they were shot with pellet guns during a mock shooting simulation at their elementary school. While some drills have taught kids to shelter in place during a shooting, others have instructed kids to use school supplies as makeshift weapons and fight back against an armed assailant. In some communities, schools have and as a solution to help kids defend themselves. 

But the drills, including those criticized for traumatizing kids, have been credited with saving lives during campus shootings, which remain statistically rare but have reached record highs in the last several years. During a shooting at Michigan鈥檚 Oxford High School in 2021, a 16-year-old student was reportedly shot as he charged at the assailant 鈥� an act that cost the star running back his life but the county sheriff said likely saved his classmates. 

鈥淲e don鈥檛 light schools on fire to practice a fire drill, yet we know that some schools are simulating active-shooter situations to practice for an active shooter,鈥� Schildkraut said. 

The effects of conducting realistic shooting scenarios, she said, should not be conflicted with the impacts of less-invasive emergency preparation like lockdowns. 

Keeping guns locked

Thursday鈥檚 executive order coincided with the release of a new Education Department tool designed to encourage families to keep their guns at home behind lock and key. 

The outlines state safe-storage and child-access prevention laws, which have been adopted in 31 states and penalize gun owners who fail to lock their weapons or who provide access to them to an unsupervised child. Though no such laws exist at the federal level, the Education Department website says the state-based efforts are an 鈥渋mportant step towards keeping our youth, schools, and communities safe.鈥�

The website also features examples of community and school district measures to promote firearm storage, including by the Cincinnati, Ohio, school district and a campaign at Colorado鈥檚 Cherry Creek School District, which distributed several hundred gun locks to families for free last year.

鈥淲hen school administrators communicate with parents about safe storage of firearms in their homes, it motivates parents to act,鈥� Biden said Thursday. 

About three-quarters of school shooters get their guns from a parent or another close relative, according to . In about half of cases, the guns had been readily accessible.

Prosecutors have increasingly turned to the actions 鈥� and inactions 鈥� of the parents of school shooters, who are . 

Earlier this month, a 54-year-old father from Georgia was arrested on murder charges after his 14-year-old son was accused of carrying out a shooting at Apalachee High School that left two of his classmates and two math teachers dead. The boy was given an AR-15-style rifle as a holiday gift last year.

In April, Michigan parents Jennifer and James Crumbley were each given decade-long prison sentences in first-of-their-kind convictions after their son, who was 15 years old at the time, killed four students in the 2021 Oxford High School shooting. The parents gave their son the 9-millimeter handgun used in the assault as a Christmas gift and stored it in an unlocked drawer in their bedroom despite warning signs the teenager planned to act violently. 

鈥淎fter current events, especially in Georgia, it鈥檚 beyond clear that safe storage in the home is essential,鈥� Wilcox, the White House gun prevention office deputy director, told 社区黑料. 鈥淔ourteen-year-olds should not have access to assault weapons.鈥� 

WASHINGTON 鈥� U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced last month he is launching a 鈥�2024 Back to School Bus Tour鈥� that will include stops in multiple battleground states across the United States as he and other Biden administration officials highlight their work in investing in public education.

While not a campaign event, the Sept. 3-6 tour will take place in the swing states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, along with stops in Indiana and Illinois. As schools are getting back in session, the department said Cardona, Deputy Secretary of Education Cindy Marten and Under Secretary of Education聽聽will shed light on the administration鈥檚 鈥渃ommitment to helping students and communities recover from the impacts of the pandemic by improving academic achievement and succeed from cradle to college and career.鈥�

Cardona said 鈥渢his year鈥檚 Back to School Bus Tour will remind the American people why the Biden-Harris Administration has unapologetically fought for public education, the foundation of opportunity in this country, and the contrast between our efforts and those who wish to destroy public education,鈥� per a statement.

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The Education secretary added that he is 鈥渓ooking forward to lifting up what鈥檚 working in public education and celebrating the exciting work taking place in our schools and communities to ensure that all students, no matter their race, place, or background, have opportunities to succeed and contribute to our country.鈥�

Cardona and other officials will be talking about some of the Biden administration鈥檚 initiatives in education, such as promoting the importance of regular attendance, providing student debt relief 鈥� including through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program 鈥� expanding full-service community schools and widening mental health support access at schools.

The department said it has invested more than $357 billion under the Biden administration to 鈥渟trengthen education across America.鈥�

This year鈥檚 tour, with a 鈥淔ighting for Public Education鈥� theme, will kick off in Green Bay, Wisconsin, on Sept. 3. Other stops in the Badger State will include Madison and Milwaukee. The Education Department said White House domestic policy adviser Neera Tanden and Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will also be at some of the stops.

Officials will also visit Chicago, Illinois, and La Porte, Indiana.

Cardona and other administration officials will then take the tour to Michigan, with stops in Grand Rapids, Lansing and Detroit. Becky Pringle, president of the聽, will join the tour in Grand Rapids, according to the department. NEA is the largest labor union in the country.

The tour will wrap up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and feature U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. Both the聽听补苍诲听聽have endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, the vice president.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Iowa Capital Dispatch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kathie Obradovich for questions: info@iowacapitaldispatch.com. Follow Iowa Capital Dispatch on and .

The Child Tax Credit isn鈥檛 a subject you鈥檇 expect to receive much attention in the middle of a heated presidential campaign.

Somewhat technocratic in nature, invisible to a large share of the electorate, the benefit was established in 1997 to provide relief to parents while their kids were young. Its reach is impressive, granting to roughly 40 million American households, but it鈥檚 hardly the kind of policy that grows in prominence in the months before Election Day.

If that鈥檚 true, however, no one told Washington.

Both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have declared their intentions to expand the credit if elected. Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance has openly mused about lifting its value , a commitment that would cost trillions over the next decade. And the U.S. House of Representatives a much more modest extension on a bipartisan basis in January, only to see its progress halted by Republicans in the Senate. 

At the heart of the issue are debates reaching back to the credit鈥檚 origins about who should be its primary beneficiaries: middle-class households or those with little or no income. 

Progressives have long sought to use the CTC as a weapon against inequality; their efforts culminated in 2021 with a temporary expansion that massively cut child poverty for a year, then expired to the disappointment of activists. But conservatives, both in , have feared that increasing the credit鈥檚 size and decoupling it from work requirements could transform it into a cash welfare program of the kind nearly 30 years ago. 

Both parties鈥� long-standing positions are headed toward a harsh deadline, however. Next year, a host of provisions from Trump鈥檚 signature 2017 tax cut will expire, among them a measure that boosted the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 to its present $2,000. Already weakened by inflation, the benefit would be cut in half if nothing is done. With 2025 coming into ever-sharper focus, Republicans and Democrats have both put forward ideas to stabilize the CTC 鈥� the only question is whether either party will hold enough power to enact its vision.

Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet, a Democrat advocating for a more powerful CTC, said in a statement to 社区黑料 that he was glad to hear of Harris鈥檚 recent proposal .

鈥淔or six shining months in 2021, we finally treated children in poverty like they were our children, not someone else鈥檚,鈥� Bennett said. 鈥淚 think that should be our model going into 2025.鈥�

But Robert Greenstein, president emeritus of the left-leaning Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and a veteran of past poverty debates, said he believed that the most probable outcome of this year鈥檚 elections would be a divided federal government, likely necessitating a bipartisan consensus on the credit鈥檚 future. 

The Senate鈥檚 to act on legislation already passed in the House suggested that any move to alter or expand it would have to be tied to other tax cuts favored by the GOP, he added.

鈥淭hey didn’t want to have this negotiated on its own,鈥� Greenstein said. 鈥淭hey want it as part of the negotiations for the extension of the 2017 tax bill, which will occur next year.”

A debate on entitlement

From relatively small beginnings, the Child Tax Credit has grown significantly more generous over time. It was worth just $400 per child in 1997, increasing to $500 the next year. That number leapt to $1,000 per child in the 2001 Bush tax cuts, then to $2,000 in 2017鈥檚 Trump-led law. 

The CTC has simultaneously become accessible to many more people. Initially conceived as a 鈥渘on-refundable鈥� credit (i.e., one that could only be claimed by people who paid a certain amount of federal taxes) it later became 鈥減artially refundable,鈥� such that lower-earning families could collect a portion of it. After 2021, they could receive a credit equal to 15 percent of their earnings over $10,000, a threshold that was lowered successively to $3,000, and finally to $2,500 in 2017. 

Although many of those changes occurred under Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Trump, conservatives remained leery of backing their way into a new, welfare-like 鈥渃hild allowance.鈥�

鈥淔or most of the ’90s and 2000s, you had Democrats who preferred a fully refundable tax credit where what you got didn’t depend on having taxable income,鈥� said Scott Winship, a researcher on family policy for the conservative American Enterprise Institute. 鈥淩epublicans were more focused on giving middle-class families a tax cut and having an earnings requirement.鈥� 

But after their victory in the 2020 elections, Democrats acted almost immediately to transform the CTC into ,supercharging its annual value to $3,600 for children under six and $3,000 for those aged six to 17 and allowing the poorest households to receive its full amount.

The expansion only ran through the end of the year, but many within the Democratic Party have for restoring it, pointing to a national child poverty rate from 9.7 percent in 2020 to 5.2 percent in 2021. While only a few years have passed since the policy was enacted, indicates that the jumbo-sized CTC allowed poor families to spend more in ways that are likely helpful to child development. Its effects were especially large in high-poverty states in the Midwest and Sun Belt, found. 

Yet some of the big-ticket bids to transform the program into a much larger entitlement strike some observers as unworkable. In a recent interview, Vance said he would favor a $5,000 credit per child, which the nonprofit estimated as much as $300 billion annually. Greenstein dismissed the notion as 鈥渨ildly expensive.鈥� 鈥� particularly given that the Ohio senator specified that all American families, including both the poor and the ultra-rich, should be considered eligible recipients.

“Somehow I find it hard to imagine that we’ll have a tax bill next year with a net cost of $3 or $4 trillion over 10 years,鈥� he said. 鈥淪omewhere along the line, fiscal concerns will limit the magnitude.鈥� 

A 鈥榥o-brainer鈥�?

Any further developments on the Child Tax Credit will hinge on the outcome of the upcoming elections.

Trump his running mate鈥檚 proposal, noting that it was during his administration that the CTC grew to its current size. Meanwhile, in her first major address on policy, Harris counter-offered of her own, with parents of newborns receiving $6,000. 

Notably, a bipartisan bill to expand the credit already made it through the House of Representatives this year, . Co-sponsored by the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the legislation would significantly lower the income threshold to receive the CTC鈥檚 full value, above the poverty line. 

Despite its towering margin in the House, as being far less effective than the 2021 expansion by Democratic Rep. Rose DeLauro, a longtime advocate of making the credit more generous. Winship and his colleagues at AEI, on the other hand, argued that the expansion could disincentivize low-income parents from , or even .

Winship said he was 鈥渁 little nervous鈥� that weakening employment requirements could hurt families鈥� chances of escaping poverty 鈥� in the same way, he argued, as the less conditional cash welfare programs of the 1970s and 鈥�80s did.

鈥淭hose programs have work disincentives for the parents, but they also have savings disincentives, marriage disincentives, disincentives for parents against investing in their skills,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hose are the sorts of behaviors that promote upward mobility, and we worry that you’re not actually doing kids a favor in the long run by giving their parents cash without conditions.”

But Keri Rodrigues, the head of the , said the Republicans failed American children when they blocked the deal from passage in the Senate. Rodrigues of her organization, which advocates for families and schools, to gather support for the compromise legislation. They saw some success 鈥� three Republicans voted in favor, including conservative Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley 鈥� but returned home discouraged in the face of a GOP-led filibuster.

Rodrigues called the CTC expansion a 鈥渘o-brainer,鈥� adding that families already squeezed by inflation couldn鈥檛 afford to see the benefit fade as well.

“It transcends geography, demographics, political party,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his is something everyone agrees needs to happen.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the affiliation of Keri Rodrigues.

鈥淭here are clear priorities that overwhelming numbers of Americans on both sides of the aisle can support,鈥� said James Lane, CEO of PDK International, a professional organization for educators that administers the annual survey. 鈥淚f I were a candidate for any office at the federal level, I would want to know those things that have broad support because they鈥檙e likely to have an opportunity for success.鈥� 

But beyond those narrow avenues of agreement, the country is separated by large partisan differences on issues from student mental health to paying for college. Eighty-six percent of Democrats want the next administration to focus on mental health and college affordability, compared with less than two-thirds of Republicans.

American voters also vary widely on their views of Washington鈥檚 role in education. Former President Donald Trump says he would dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, push for universal private school choice and expect schools to promote patriotism, according to his . On the Democratic side, Vice President Kamala Harris would push for more 鈥渟tringent guardrails鈥� on charter schools, revive an effort to pass and expand the to provide up to $6,000 for families with a newborn. 

Less than half of Americans 鈥� 45% 鈥� approve of how the Biden administration has handled education policy, the same they gave former President Donald Trump in 2020. But less than a third say they鈥檇 trust Trump on education if he鈥檚 elected again in November. Their views on a potential Harris-Walz administration are unclear 鈥� the poll was conducted before the disastrous debate that sparked President Joe Biden鈥檚 departure from the race. 

Lane, who served as acting assistant secretary for elementary and secondary education at the U.S. Department of Education in the Biden administration before joining PDK last year, declined to comment on the president鈥檚 education track record. Attitudes toward the candidates might have shifted slightly if the poll had been conducted after Harris became the nominee, he said, but views on the major issues likely wouldn鈥檛 have changed much. 

The large partisan gaps are surprising given that many issues 鈥渄on’t really have a straightforward partisan connotation,鈥� said David Houston, an education professor at George Mason University. Public pre-K, for example, has long held bipartisan support at the state level, but a federal role in expanding access is a much higher priority for Democrats than Republicans, 71% and 48% respectively. 

The poll also shows that 54% of Americans overall 鈥� and 70% of public school parents 鈥� say education will play an extremely or very important role in the upcoming presidential election. But Houston is skeptical. 

鈥淚 would be surprised if education was the top-of-mind issue that would be deciding those votes,鈥� he said. That could change, he said, if the race is really close. 鈥淎nything that moves the vote count a fraction of a percent matters in a head-to-head race.鈥�

Across the sample of over 1,000 participants, there are also striking differences in responses by race. Support for a greater focus on helping students catch up in school, addressing mental health and reducing college costs is roughly 20% higher among Blacks than whites. 

The largest gap is on the issue of protecting students from discrimination, with 87% of Black respondents saying they want more attention paid to civil rights, compared to 51% of whites. Hispanic and Black Americans were nearly tied on wanting the next administration to strengthen access to public pre-K 鈥� 66% and 67% respectively 鈥� but just half of white respondents viewed it as a priority.

The Trump platform doesn鈥檛 mention early learning, but a for his potential second term, released by the conservative Heritage Foundation, would eliminate Head Start, the federally funded program for low-income families. While for 3- and 4-year-olds remains a plank in the Democratic platform, Biden was not able to win Congressional support for the issue when he ran on it in 2020.

Views on charters

Charter school expansion was the only issue where less than half of Americans 鈥� 35% 鈥� want an expanded federal role. Surprisingly, just half of Republicans called it a priority, perhaps reflecting the party鈥檚 increasing shift toward education savings accounts, which allow parents to pay for private school tuition or homeschooling costs with public funds.

鈥淸GOP] interest in charter schools has really petered out, compared to their heyday in the 2010s,鈥� Houston said. 鈥淭he school choice wing of the party has its energies focused elsewhere.鈥�

Among Democrats, who often accuse such schools of siphoning students from traditional outlets, less than a quarter wanted more federal attention on charter expansion.

Enrollment trends tell a different story, said Sonia Park, executive director of the Diverse Charter Schools Coalition, a network that encourages socioeconomic and racial diversity. Charters overall have seen continued growth 鈥� a 2% increase last year, 鈥� during a time when the student population in district schools was flat or declining. 

鈥淧arents want quality public school choice, regardless of where they are, and charters are part of that,鈥� she said.

Democrats promise to pick up where the Biden administration left off on charter policy. According to the 2024 , additional federal funding for charter expansions or renewals would hinge on whether local districts determine they 鈥渟ystematically underserve the neediest students鈥� 鈥� a change that goes beyond restrictions the Biden administration adopted in 2022. 

鈥楬arrowing鈥� results on teaching

With Harris鈥檚 selection of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former high school teacher, as her running mate, education is likely to get frequent attention during the fall campaign. But Lane, with PDK, wants to hear specific plans to address ongoing in the teaching workforce. Relief funds that allowed districts to hire more staff will soon expire, a reality that already contributed to a wave of . Some districts are still starting the school year with , and another shows just 16% of teachers would recommend the profession to their friends.

For the first time, the survey also asked the public about AI in education, a subject that often generates mixed reactions. Over 60% of Americans support AI for tutoring, test preparation and lesson planning. But only 43% favored students relying on AI for help with homework.

In keeping with its focus on teaching, PDK International routinely includes a question in its poll that asks parents whether they鈥檇 support their children going into education. The organization runs , a nationwide program that aims to get middle and high school students interested in the profession.

Just four in 10 parents say they鈥檇 like to see one of their children become a teacher 鈥� a significant drop from the three-fourths of parents who favored that choice when the question was first asked in 1969. The primary reason: low pay. 

鈥嬧�嬧�漌e’re going to have to address salaries,鈥� Lane said. 鈥淭he fact that 60% of folks wouldn’t even recommend a teaching career to their own children is harrowing, considering the needs that we have.鈥�

This week, Maniar saw Clinton speak again, this time at the Democratic National Convention, the first since Roe was overturned, where she鈥檚 volunteering and attending as a guest of .

She鈥檒l be flying straight from Chicago to Boston on Thursday and then moving into her freshman dorm at Harvard University Friday. She plans on studying  government, education and Spanish and continuing her work as a youth organizer.  She鈥檒l also be spending time in Boston Public Schools helping teach civics education and curriculum through Harvard Civics.

This election cycle, Maniar has been particularly motivated to collect signatures for an abortion amendment that will appear on the November ballot in her home state. If passed, Amendment 4 would establish a statewide constitutional right to abortion up until fetal viability, a major shift from Florida鈥檚 current law, which bans abortion after six weeks except in rare cases. 

Currently, related to abortion are certified for the 2024 general election, the most on record in a single year. Vice President Kamala Harris, now leading the Democratic ticket, is seen as a particularly and has already done much to win over Gen Z.

In an interview with 社区黑料, Maniar said she thinks these ballot measures can mobilize youth voters, who are feeling particularly energized both by the abortion issue and Harris鈥檚 campaign more broadly.  

鈥淚 think autonomy right now to young people means a lot, because 鈥� especially in this state 鈥� we know what it feels like to feel like you have none,鈥� she said. 

In late July, Harris spoke with Maniar鈥檚 peers when she made a virtual appearance at the Gen-Z-led Voters of Tomorrow summit.

鈥淲e need your support,鈥� Harris said. 鈥淚n this election we know young voters will be key, and we know your vote cannot be taken for granted. It must be earned. And that is exactly what we will do.鈥� 

Vice President knows she must earn our generation鈥檚 votes, and that is exactly what she will do.

鈥� Voters of Tomorrow (@VotersTomorrow)

Days before leaving for the convention where Harris will accept her history-making nomination, Maniar talked politics with 社区黑料鈥檚 Amanda Geduld.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

社区黑料: How did you first get involved with local politics and civic engagement?

Rhea Maniar: When I was 9, my parents took me to a Hillary Clinton rally in Sanford, Florida, in 2016, and they’ve never been the most politically involved people, but they saw that this election was really exciting because it was our first female nominee from the Democratic Party. And they took me in a shirt that said “Future President.” I think ever since that, I’ve just been hooked. 

I actually signed up to volunteer for Hillary Clinton on my own 鈥� after my bedtime 鈥� on my mom’s computer. I snuck in afterwards, and then they called my mom because I didn’t have a phone, so I just put her phone number, and they’re like, 鈥淐an we speak to Rhea Maniar?鈥� And she was like, 鈥淵ou can, but she’s like 9 and in bed.鈥� So I ended up phone banking at a neighbor’s house 鈥� and that was kind of my first foray into politics: Me and my mom phone banking together for 2016.

鈥� In 10th grade, I did the Florida Senate Page Program 鈥� and then I also met Rep. Anna Eskamani, who kind of became my biggest inspiration and mentor in this process. And she offered me an internship just as I was going into 10th grade, and that internship was life changing for me. It was my first experience on the legislative side.

鈥� That summer was also the summer that Roe v. Wade broke. So that was insane. I was a rising sophomore in high school. I couldn’t drive, but I was at the rallies, and I planned events all centered around really advocating for Roe v. Wade, and that summer was amazing. 

鈥� I spent the majority of my senior year really talking to adults and advocating for the fact that high schoolers are here, college students are here. We’re ready to get the vote out in 2024, but we need adults to really get us the resources.

You mentioned your experience with the Dobbs decision and your response to that. Can you walk me through that a little bit? Do you remember hearing about that decision for the first time, what your immediate response was and what you’ve done around that issue since?

Yeah, when it broke out 鈥� I think everyone at Rep. Eskamani’s office was just shocked, but we didn’t have any time to be shocked. It was time to get to work. 

So this meant we jumped into planning the rallies and the events and the speaker panels, and so it was crazy, because we didn’t expect such a large response from the Central Florida community. But sign-ups for our rally and our march were going out the door. So many people showed up. We didn’t know what to do. I think, like, three or 4,000 people showed up, literally, on that day. They just dropped what they were doing to come and we were so grateful for the fact, but also that was our first time really seeing, 鈥淥h my God. People who are not typically involved with these kinds of things are coming out in full force.鈥� There are so many civically engaged people here who this is their first kind of major protest, major rally, major movement. 

鈥�  And so since, we’ve been trying to capitalize on that type of energy, and I think that we’ve been really effective in the fact that abortion access affects everyone 鈥� even if you’re a man. I think for a lot of Floridians, this is definitely top-of-mind with the new ballot initiative. 

And so part of our job was explaining the ballot initiative and why it was so important in November to come out and vote 鈥� 

What made it so exciting to see this in 2024 is 鈥� we knew that abortion was literally the number one issue on top of Florida students’ minds 鈥� college students, especially 鈥� along with rent and housing and education. But abortion after Dobbs quickly rose to the top of that. 

鈥� The fact that voters will literally have the chance in November 2024 to actually speak their minds on this and make sure that their legislators actually represent them in their best interests, was something that I think is really powerful to a lot of Florida students, and it’s definitely something that we are trying our best to uplift and then make as obvious as possible. 

鈥� Whenever we did voter registration at schools, we would also have petitions for the 18-year-olds, just to make sure that we were really helping to get that ballot on the table and to pass the threshold.

So what will it mean for youth voters that this abortion ballot will be on the ticket this November?

I think it means a lot to youth voters, because with the combination of having such a powerful and energetic candidate at the top of the ballot 鈥� obviously Kamala Harris has greatly improved her numbers in polling amongst youth, especially in Florida 鈥� I think what that means is a higher chance of success for our down-ballot races, which are obviously just as important. 

Obviously, we have Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who is running against Rick Scott [both Tuesday in the U.S. Senate race]. We have a bunch of really competitive, flippable seats in [state] House districts and Senate districts that are literally right in colleges 鈥擴CF [University of Central Florida], FSU [Florida State University] and FAMU [ Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University] in Tallahassee 鈥� and so I hope, I am pretty sure 鈥� that the abortion amendment has done its job in that we’ve excited these voters, we’ve prepped them, we’ve informed them that so that they know that this year, abortion is on their ballot. 

And I think that in November, we’re going to see record-breaking 鈥� or at least higher 鈥� turnout amongst youth voters aged 18 to 29 than we ever have seen, because with the combination of abortion, weed [Florida ballot measure to ] and Kamala Harris, I think 鈥� and obviously massive outreach efforts on behalf of the Florida High School Democrats and the Florida College Democrats 鈥� I think all this combined is just a recipe for success, and I don’t really see it going any other way at this point. And I’m very glad I can say that.

When you’re tabling or giving out petitions, what are you hearing from young people about this ballot measure 鈥� and about the issue of abortion, more generally 鈥� within this political climate and then also within the context of the upcoming race?

I think in a world where our governor has made the decisions constantly for high schoolers 鈥� and we’ve kind of lost autonomy over that 鈥� over what our teachers can say in school, what books we can have in school, what’s being taught, what can we take 鈥� I think autonomy right now to young people means a lot, because especially in this state, we know what it feels like to feel like you have none. 

And so that’s why the abortion ballot initiative 鈥� and just in general 鈥� amendments 鈥� are so popular 鈥�

It sounds like this ballot measure brings a sense of empowerment to a population in Florida that 鈥� like you said 鈥� feels like their autonomy has been taken away. And I’m wondering, for young people in states that don’t have a ballot measure coming up in November that deals with this issue, what is your message to them?

鈥� My message to folks in states who are passionate about abortion, but don’t know where to start because they don’t have a ballot amendment, is, I’d always say, organize your community. There’s power in numbers. There’s power in voices. All you have to do is start speaking up, whether that’s planning events, whether that’s registering your friends to vote, and whether that’s calling and emailing your representative and knocking down their door. I would say anything helps.

Outside of abortion, what are other issues that you hear young people getting really excited about this election cycle?

I think especially in Florida, rent is a really, really big problem. And so many older folks will come up to me and be like, 鈥淥h, what issues matter to young people?鈥� And most of the time I’m like, 鈥淭he same issues that matter to you.鈥�

Young professionals are also looking for places to work, jobs and homes 鈥� We held a and that was top of mind. Property insurance is a massive deal here 鈥� especially to young people who are just getting on their feet, who have a college degree, who need a job and need rent help. Things have become so ridiculously unaffordable for everyone. 

The second priority was abortion. The third one was education, because obviously our public colleges have seen such a major shift with political ideology and the governor trying to get his hands into curriculum. The fourth one is usually always gun control 鈥� being the state of Pulse, being the state of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School [scenes of massive shootings in 2016 and 2018]. Especially to our high school students, who have lived high school every year, having to do active shooter drills every two months, I think this is a really top-of-mind issue. 

And Gen Z is one of the most diverse generations in history 鈥� racially, ethnically, ideology-wise 鈥� and we have a very large population of Gen Z who identifies [as] LGBTQ. And so I think the queer community here is also being very outspoken that their issues are also top of ballot, because Florida has done a very poor job with that. So those are probably top five.

So now a question about you: Will this November be your first election?

Yes, I’m actually old enough to do it in our August primary, so I just did that.

Amazing. And how did it feel to be a first-time voter?

It was so fun. I put the sticker on my computer. I took a picture. I wanted to memorialize this moment. After organizing around so many issues for so long, I felt really good to finally mark my name down on the ballot 鈥� and I’m really excited to vote in November.

So Cormack, who teaches at Stevens Institute of Technology and just on civic engagement, was surprised when they expressed excitement. They were 鈥渁ll on board鈥� 鈥� with Kamala Harris, Biden鈥檚 vice president, who had yet to become Trump鈥檚 direct challenger.

No matter. They thought the VP was, in a word, hilarious 鈥� and worth their attention.

Harris鈥� 2023 鈥溾�� video had already gone viral. In it, she recounts her mother giving her sister and her 鈥渁 hard time sometimes,鈥� saying, 鈥溾�業 don鈥檛 know what鈥檚 wrong with you young people. You think you just fell out of a coconut tree?鈥欌�� Harris cracks up, then continues with her mother鈥檚 lesson: 鈥溾�榊ou exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you.鈥欌�� 

Cormack鈥檚 students not only knew the video 鈥� they could recite it from memory. She thought to herself, 鈥淥.K., there’s .鈥�

What Cormack witnessed was the ascension of Harris in the minds and social media feeds of young people. It was the prequel to a new phenomenon: the candidate-as-meme, at a time when both candidates desperately need young people to pay attention to them. Whether it translates into votes from this stubborn demographic in November remains an open question.

At the moment, it seems to be working for Harris, 59, whose social media effort is driven by an army of volunteers creating a firehose of memes on her behalf.

By the time Biden dropped out of the race on July 21, Harris had actually been young people鈥檚 feeds for weeks. Fans posted cleverly cut treatments of her speeches, her , (in and out ), even her love of .

As early as , one X user posted, 鈥淚鈥檓 ready to fall outta the coconut tree for you, girl. Stop playin.鈥�

鈥業t鈥檚 hard not to love her鈥�

For one fan, the attraction began much earlier.

Ryan Long, 22, a senior at the University of Delaware, discovered Harris in November 2016, when she won her Senate seat. She popped up on his cultural radar in earnest four years later, when she became Biden鈥檚 vice president. Her appearances often took on a life of their own, he recalled: She鈥檇 say 鈥渁 lot of silly and amusing things鈥� in official settings. 鈥淚’ve always found her so, so funny.鈥�

Harris鈥� self-professed geek tendencies soon prompted him and his housemates to decorate a whiteboard with the saying, 鈥淚 love Venn diagrams.鈥� It stayed up for about a year. The hilarity of the 鈥淐oconut Tree鈥� video made it 鈥渞eally popular on 鈥� about a year and a half before it hit the mainstream, he said.

Long admitted to not typically following politics. But by the beginning of July, when a poll in his X feed suggested that Harris had a better chance of beating Trump than Biden did, he got excited.

鈥淚t was a silly, unrealistic excitement,鈥� he said. But that night, he spent about three hours cutting together his favorite bits of Harris footage.

why did I stay up till 3am making a von dutch brat coconut tree edit featuring kamala harris and why can鈥檛 I stop watching it on repeat

鈥� ryan (@ryanlong03)

尝辞苍驳鈥檚 of Harris speaking, laughing and dancing has garnered about 4.3 million views on X and helped create a template for the genre. 鈥淪he is a fresh face at a time that there [is] so much disillusionment in politics, especially among young people,鈥� he said. 

Now that she鈥檚 the Democratic nominee, she offers the potential to bring a lot of young people along for the ride, Long said. 

In that sense, she is much like Trump, who 鈥渉as this huge cult of personality. He’s able to make riffs, say things off the cuff, make people laugh, make people excited, make people sad, make people just feel their emotions. And I think Kamala Harris does that for a whole other subsection of voters.鈥�

By comparison, Biden鈥檚 push to reach young voters via social media and all but non-existent to many.

For his part, Trump has benefited from the efforts his own devoted fans, who have reveled in his ties to and his after the attempt on his life last month. The campaign has also gotten a boost from a small on the right who have become a 鈥渟hadow online ad agency鈥� for his campaign, spending the past year producing similar content for the GOP nominee. The group, which calls itself , operates anonymously, its memes 鈥渞iddled with racist stereotypes, demeaning tropes about L.G.B.T.Q. people and broad scatological humor,鈥� The New York Times last December.

鈥楢uthentic and true鈥� narratives attract Gen Z

To be sure, the reaction to Harris on social media has been unprecedented. Jessica Siles, a spokesperson for the Gen-Z-led advocacy group , said she had stopped counting how many conversations she has had with people about what it means to be 鈥渂rat.鈥�

That adjective comes compliments of British singer Charli XCX, who on July 21 , 鈥渒amala IS brat,鈥� defining the term as 鈥渢hat girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some like dumb things sometimes.鈥� She鈥檚 honest, blunt 鈥� and a bit volatile.

It all adds up to a kind of authenticity “that young people really resonate with,鈥� said Siles. 

Even U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona tried to get in on the act, posting on X in the lime green color of the moment that 鈥淒efending public education is part of the essence of brat summer.鈥� To some, it appeared, as the kids say, a little cringe. One critic, invoking the iconic scene from 鈥�30 Rock,鈥� , 鈥淗ow do you do, fellow kids?”

Defending public education is part of the essence of brat summer.

鈥� Secretary Miguel Cardona (@SecCardona)

Most Gen-Zers were indeed kids the last time a meme-worthy candidate ran for president. Siles, 24, was just 8 years old when Barack Obama ran his first presidential campaign. She said seeing a candidate talk about who they are unapologetically while boasting impressive career accomplishments 鈥渋s just super refreshing to young voters.鈥� 

Gen Z grew up with these. 鈥淪o I think we’re kind of uniquely qualified to be able to tell who’s posting something authentically or not,鈥� she said. Young people don鈥檛 take the time to create, edit, post and share videos of 鈥減eople they’re not truly excited about.鈥�

Harris began resonating with Siles after she watched a video of the vice president talking about her mother鈥檚 cancer. Siles remembered that it 鈥渟howed a different side that we don’t always see of elected officials and politicians that I thought was really powerful.鈥�

In the three days after Harris announced her candidacy, Siles鈥� organization got more applications to join and start new chapters than in the prior two months.

The group, whose chief of staff is all of 16, earlier this year by making mischief in the race: It scooped up unused Web domain names for groups such as GenZforTrump.org and guided viewers to that targets young voters in battleground states. It also launched a digital ad campaign on Instagram and Snapchat.

David Paleologos, director of the in Boston, said there鈥檚 no question that social media has trained young people鈥檚 attention on Harris, who needs the votes: Exit polls from 2020 suggest that Biden beat Trump by 24 percentage points among voters ages 18-29. Harris hasn’t quite reached those margins among potential young voters in the recent polling, he said, but she鈥檚 close 鈥� up by about 20 points. 

In order to reach 2020 levels in the next three months, she鈥檒l need a social media strategy of “messaging memeology,” Paleologos said, which strings together 鈥渁 seemingly haphazard sequence of posts that paint a picture, much like the colorful stones in a mosaic.鈥�

However, he said, one risk of that is staying power: 鈥淚t only lasts until the next meme about someone else captures that young person’s short attention span.鈥� Research also shows that young voters are the least participatory in elections.

Just like clockwork, since she announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate on Aug. 6, the have .

鈥業 hate how I can feel the propaganda鈥�

To be sure, not all young people are totally sold on the coconut memes or the high energy. In , a 19-year-old user from southwestern Missouri who goes by the username 鈥淢eatball鈥� looks into the camera and confesses, 鈥淚 hate how I can feel the propaganda of the Kamala campaign working on me.鈥� 

In the video, posted July 24, she continues, 鈥淧art of me is like, 鈥榊ass queen, purr! Brat Summer! Kamala Harris!鈥� And then I’m like, 鈥極h my God, that’s a politician, actually. That’s the vice president of the United States.鈥� Like, I’m still going to vote for her, but I don’t like feeling like I want to vote for her.鈥�

In an interview via text messages, Meatball, who asked to withhold her name for safety reasons, said she posted the video after getting 鈥渃ountless鈥� Harris-related videos on her 鈥淔or You鈥� page 鈥� a few from Harris鈥� official account. “I wanted to see if anyone else was experiencing this disconnect between wanting to participate in something fun and not trusting politicians,鈥� she said.

It鈥檚 safe to say they do: In three weeks, her video garnered 1.8 million views and more than 289,000 鈥渓ikes.鈥� 

But Meatball said she wishes older generations understood that Gen Z鈥檚 opinions 鈥渁ren’t less thought out just because we share them in unconventional ways鈥� like TikToks. 鈥淢eme culture is complex and has been developing since the creation of the internet chat room. Just because an older person doesn’t understand what we’re saying doesn’t mean we aren’t saying anything at all.鈥�

Long, the Delaware student who posted the X video of Harris, predicted the memes and videos will have a big effect. 

He has worked in e-commerce marketing and has seen the power of social media to convert views into sales. 鈥淚 think the same principle applies for elections: It’s going to turn people out. It’s going to get them excited.鈥�

Tampon Tim? Try Teflon Tim.

In the days since Vice President Kamala Harris tapped him as her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz 鈥� a popular former rural high school social studies teacher/football coach-turned-politician 鈥� has emerged, on education matters, as a master needle-threader. 

To wit: In 2023, with Democrats in charge of all three branches of state government, Walz signed an avalanche of education legislation. From free school meals for all kids to science-backed literacy instruction to a historic $2.2 billion boost to school funding, there was seemingly something for everyone in the sheaf of bills that crossed Walz鈥檚 desk. 

But in the weeks leading up to the 2024 legislative session, the organization representing many of the state鈥檚 largest districts put out its policy agenda, topped with a polite request for the Democratic 鈥渢rifecta鈥�: . 

Districts were scrambling to pay for new, nationally admired programs extending paid family and medical leave and sick time to all workers, as well as unemployment benefits for hourly, seasonal school employees. 

Lawmakers had set aside a woefully inadequate amount of money to fulfill their promise to reimburse districts for adopting vetted reading curricula. And the list of potentially costly things school administrators were legally required to bargain over with teacher unions 鈥� ranging from how e-learning days would be decided to what training for classroom aides would include 鈥� swelled.

Most of this, however, was invisible to voters, who enjoyed a steady stream of photos depicting the governor, surrounded by gleeful schoolchildren, affixing his John Hancock to a measure mandating free breakfast and lunch for all. 

How nice of the Trump camp to help publicize Gov. Tim Walz’s compassionate and common-sense policy of providing free menstrual products to students in Minnesota public schools! Let’s do this everywhere.

鈥� Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton)

And yes, Walz did sign legislation 鈥� purposefully written in gender-neutral language 鈥� to provide in-school period products to any student who menstruates. A well-tested law gives Minnesota students the right to use the school facilities where they are most comfortable, so tampons and pads should be available in all restrooms, the student activists menstrual products bill insisted.  

Here are eight things to know about Walz鈥檚 record on education: 

1. In Congress 鈥� But Kept His Teaching License

Minnesota Professional Educator License and Standards Board file No. 365457, Timothy James Walz鈥檚 license to teach secondary school social studies, is currently inactive. It鈥檚 a telling document nonetheless.

Walz started his teaching career alongside Gwen Whipple, whom he would later marry, with a one-year stint in China. The Walzes taught in western Nebraska 鈥� where he insisted on as something other than an isolated event unlikely to be repeated 鈥� before moving to his wife’s Minnesota hometown, Mankato. There, he was a popular teacher who helped coach the high school football team to its first-ever state championship. 

In 2005, he participated in a boot camp run by Wellstone Action, a grass-roots candidate recruiting and training organization established by intimates of the late Minnesota Sen. Paul Wellstone, another educator-turned-politician. The following year, Walz took a leave of absence from teaching to run for Congress 鈥� a longshot in the state鈥檚 conservative 1^st Congressional District. 

His win notwithstanding, Walz renewed his teaching license on June 23, 2008, a year and a half after he was sworn in for his first term in the House. He was re-elected three times before he let it lapse. 

2. 鈥業 Am Labor鈥�

After six terms in Congress, Walz won Minnesota鈥檚 governorship in 2018, in part by appealing to public-sector unions 鈥� huge funders of the state鈥檚 Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party candidates: 鈥淚 am labor, I stand with labor and as governor, I will keep Minnesota a labor state.鈥� He appointed Mary Cathryn Ricker, then vice president of the American Federation of Teachers, as his first education commissioner. 

In September 2020, Walz convened an education working group not with Ricker, but with his wife and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan. Flanagan is a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and another Wellstone Action alum who got her start in electoral politics by becoming the youngest person ever elected to the Minneapolis School Board. 

Five months later, Ricker鈥檚 office released a report capping the efforts of a school finance working group and a strategic plan titled 鈥淥ne Minnesota.鈥� A few days later, the governor released his own 鈥淒ue North Education Plan.鈥� 

Both documents called for sweeping changes in racial equity in schools, more diverse educators and classroom materials, and new academic standards covering a host of topics, including the rarely taught history of Minnesota鈥檚 American Indian tribes. There was, however, no roadmap for effecting the called-for change. The last progress report on Due North鈥檚 implementation is dated April 2022.    

At the time the Due North plan was released, Walz was struggling to reverse course on COVID-related school closures and get kids back in classrooms. Though his administration put educators at the front of the line for vaccination, and Walz repeatedly signaled to local education officials that it was time to reopen schools for all kids, closures persisted 鈥� fueled in some places by teachers union resistance to returning to classrooms. 

In March 2021, with school district leaders in Minneapolis and several other communities showing few signs of bucking their unions by reopening, Walz ordered all schools statewide to provide some in-person learning. 

A few days later, Ricker , saying she missed being a classroom teacher. (She would go on to head the union-aligned Shanker Institute.) To replace her, Walz tapped an assistant state Education Department commissioner who had come from his home school district, Mankato. 

3. ‘I Am Labor,’ But 鈥� 

When Walz first tapped Ricker, Minnesota proponents of education reform feared that the administration would seek to curtail school choice, to roll back standardized assessments and to deliver on the state teachers union鈥檚 long wish list. Minnesota had been the first state in the nation to enact a charter school law, in 1991.

Walz and his statehouse partisans have taken nibbles, last spring introducing legislation to push back the statutory deadline for making public the results of annual statewide reading, math and science tests from Sept. 1 to Dec. 1. Advocates were quick to complain that this would obscure the degree to which children of color were not bouncing back from COVID learning losses but were, in fact, falling further behind. The push failed.

The administration has not taken up calls for lawmakers to step into a nearly decade-old school desegregation suit that would likely place major constraints on charter schools and inter-district open enrollment. The plaintiffs have not found Democrats willing to consider the wholesale rewrite of state integration laws that they have pitched as a possible settlement to the suit. 

Potentially most notable, over the last three years Minnesota lawmakers have moved to rectify a wrinkle in the state school funding system that Democrats had long resisted touching. With state aid for students in special education lagging badly behind costs, school districts have been forced to use rising portions of their general budgets to cover the shortfall. For decades, offsetting this 鈥渃ross subsidy鈥� was seen as politically inexpedient by both parties. 

In 2023, Democratic legislators proposed to close this gap. Walz countered with less than half that amount, despite having campaigned on the issue. In the end, the governor and lawmakers compromised, with more cash directed to new benefits for school employees and a plan to increase the amount of state aid directed at the special education shortfall to 50% of the cost over the next three years. 

4. A Scandal That Might 鈥� or Might Not 鈥� Stick

In June, Minnesota鈥檚 legislative auditor released on the Department of Education鈥檚 role in one of the country鈥檚 largest pandemic aid-related scandals. The nonprofit child nutrition organization Feeding Our Future had engaged in fraud that drained at least $250 million in COVID relief funding that was supposed to be used to distribute food to needy kids outside of schools.

Whether the scandal will taint Walz鈥檚 candidacy remains to be seen. His name does not appear in the audit, which says the department鈥檚 lack of oversight over Feeding our Future preceded his administration. The department has refuted the report. 

However, most of are Somali, and supporters of former President Donald Trump have begun to pepper attacks on Walz鈥檚 military record with allusions to Somalia. 

鈥淭im Walz has finally told everybody he hasn鈥檛 been to Iraq,鈥� the chair of the Montana GOP proclaimed at a Trump rally days after the governor was tapped. 鈥淏ut he wanted you all to know that he has been to Minneapolis. He has some Black Hawk Down problems there.鈥� 

Montana GOP Chair: Tim Walz has finally told everybody he hasn鈥檛 been in Iraq鈥� but he wanted you all to know that he has been to Minneapolis. He has some Black Hawk Down problems there

鈥� Acyn (@Acyn)

When COVID forced the closure of schools and day care centers, the U.S. Department of Agriculture loosened its rules for distributing free meals for children. The number of kids supposedly being fed by a network of distribution sites overseen by two Minnesota nonprofits mushroomed, continuing to rise by tens of thousands well after the pandemic was under control. 

Very little of the federal funding was spent on meals, the FBI and auditor eventually found. The U.S. attorney general began indicting participants in the scheme in September 2022. The first seven defendants out of 70 charged went on trial in May. 

The director of the state Education Department鈥檚 nutrition division testified that in spring 2021, as the number of invoices submitted for reimbursement swelled 鈥� 鈥淚 had never seen payments of that magnitude before,鈥� 鈥� she contacted the USDA and the FBI and then stopped the payments pending documentation from Feeding Our Future and another nonprofit meal provider.

Feeding Our Future鈥檚 two founders are white, but most of the defendants are Somali. In April 2021, the group went to court, arguing that the department was engaging in racial discrimination. A judge ruled that the department did not have the authority to stop paying the nonprofits. Claims continued to rise.      

No one associated with the , Partners in Nutrition, was charged. The state dropped the group from the program. 

Near the end of the six-week Feeding Our Future trial, the judge was forced to sequester the jury when a juror鈥檚 family notified officials that a woman had dropped a bag containing $120,000 on the juror鈥檚 front stoop, along with a promise of more if the defendants were acquitted. 

Five of the seven have now been convicted, and the mastermind of the bribery scheme pleaded guilty. Forty-four more of those indicted in the future, though the initial convictions could spark some to seek pleas.  

5. The Politics of Policing

In the wake of George Floyd鈥檚 murder by a Minneapolis police officer, which touched off days of riots involving both peaceful protesters and outside instigators, Walz called a special session of the legislature to take up police reform. Among other things, lawmakers banned the use of chokeholds. 

In 2023, after years of lobbying by advocates for children of color, Walz signed legislation barring police officers stationed in schools from using prone restraints 鈥� a maneuver that stops short of a chokehold but nonetheless is dangerous to students. Saying the new law would make it impossible for their officers to work in schools, numerous law enforcement agencies threatened to sever their contracts with districts. 

Public opinion on police reform is divided in Minnesota, with many people who live outside of the Twin Cities strongly opposed. Throughout his governorship, Walz has walked the urban-rural divide very carefully. In 2024, one of the first debates taken up by the administration and lawmakers was the rollback of the 2023 prone-restraint law 鈥� a proposition critics charged was directly tied to maintaining statewide Democratic voter support in an election year. 

鈥嬧�婸rone restraints are now legal again, though advocates say work on a model policy for police in schools called for as part of a political compromise is going poorly. 

6. The First Lady鈥檚 Own Education Record

Little known even in her home state, Gwen Walz is a major proponent of providing higher education to prisoners. She features prominently in a 2019 documentary, “College Behind Bars.” The four-hour deep dive on Bard College鈥檚 Bard Prison Initiative aired on PBS.  

“It is incredibly expensive, both financially and emotionally, to have people in prison,” newspaper in advance of the program鈥檚 debut. “And I think very much about victims, and I think the best way I can support victims is by trying to ensure that there aren’t more of them.”  

7. St. Paul Public Schools鈥檚 First Family 

The governor鈥檚 younger child, Gus Walz, attends St. Paul Public Schools鈥檚 Central Senior High. Located within walking distance of the governor鈥檚 mansion, the school is integrated: almost 45% of the student body is white, with 27% Black and 10% Asian.

Central鈥檚 academic outcomes are illustrative of Minnesota鈥檚 nation-leading racial disparities, with 13% of all students passing the 2023 state math assessment and 36% reading. Among white students, however, passage rates were 20% and 55%, compared with 3% and 10% for Black children. 

Asian students 鈥� who in St. Paul tend to be Vietnamese, Hmong and of other Southeast Asian origins 鈥� scored poorly as well, with 15% passing the math test and 37% reading. 

The Walzes鈥� older child, Hope, has featured prominently in the governor鈥檚 cheeky social media campaigns, among other things cajoling her dad onto daredevil state fair rides. Gus has not been as visible.

My daughter, Hope, tricked me into doing the most extreme ride at the Minnesota State Fair.

鈥� Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz)

Shortly after Harris announced Walz as her running mate, the family that Gus has a nonverbal learning disorder, ADHD and anxiety. The Walzes were careful to avoid describing their son鈥檚 disabilities as deficits, telling the magazine that, 鈥淲鈥媓at became so immediately clear to us was that Gus鈥� condition is not a setback 鈥� it鈥檚 his secret power.”  

Gus Walz will turn 18 in October. 

8. The Football Coach and the Gay Kids

About the presence of tampons in restrooms: In Minnesota, long-settled law allows students to use the restroom they are most comfortable with. Some schools are doing away with gendered facilities altogether, creating single-stall bathrooms for all kids.

In March 2023, Walz issued an executive order declaring the state a sanctuary for transgender individuals, protecting the right to gender-affirming medical care and shielding patients, parents and care providers from efforts by officials in other states to obtain health care records or punish those involved. The legislature 鈥� which boasts a sizable, multiracial 鈥淨ueer Caucus鈥� 鈥� quickly enshrined the protections in law. 

Over the last few years, as 鈥淒on鈥檛 Say Gay鈥� laws and bans on sports participation and medical care for gender nonconforming youth have swept statehouses, LGBTQ families have 鈥� asking on Facebook and other sites for help in finding affirming school systems and providers with room for new patients.

Walz has repeatedly said he realized early he was uniquely positioned to act on behalf of LGBTQ youth. In 1999, with the brutal murder of gay Wyoming student Matthew Shepard still in the headlines, Walz volunteered to help a handful of students organize the first gay-straight alliance at Mankato West, the rural high school where he taught social studies.

It was a risky move for a teacher at the time. But a member of the National Guard, a hunter and a popular football coach, Walz said, provided impeccable cultural credentials in his conservative southern Minnesota community. The half-dozen students who formed that first GSA went on when he made his first congressional bid in 2006.聽

Correction: The June report about the Minnesota Department of Education was released by the state’s legislative auditor.

PHILADELPHIA 鈥� Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz appeared together in Philadelphia Tuesday at a rally on Temple University鈥檚 campus, the first time she has visited Pennsylvania as the Democrats鈥� presumptive nominee for president. It鈥檚 been less than a month since Harris鈥� last visit to the City of Brotherly Love, but in that time she鈥檚 gone from being President Joe Biden鈥檚 running mate to leading at the top of the ticket.

The speculation about Harris鈥� running mate reached a fever pitch on Monday, with observers looking for any clue about who her pick would be. On Tuesday morning, she ended the guessing, .

The running mates took the stage at the Liacouras Center to raucous applause from the full arena, with 鈥淔reedom鈥� by Beyonce playing.

鈥淲e are the underdogs in this race. But we have the momentum, and I know exactly what we are up against,鈥� Harris said. She said in her past roles as a prosecutor and senator she 鈥渢ook on perpetrators of all kinds: predators who abused women, fraudsters who scammed consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. So hear me when I say: I know Donald Trump鈥檚 type.鈥�

But her campaign is not just a fight against Trump, Harris added, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a fight for the future.鈥�

Harris described Walz鈥檚 career path as a teacher and high school football coach, taking a winless team to a state championship. He also championed students who were struggling with acceptance, she added, becoming the faculty advisor for students who wanted to start a support group for LGBTQ students.

鈥淭im knew the signal that it would send to have a football coach get involved,鈥� Harris said. 鈥淭im Walz was the kind of teacher and mentor that every child in America dreams of having, and that every kid deserves that kind of coach, because he鈥檚 the kind of person who makes people feel like they belong, and then inspires them to dream big. And that鈥檚 the kind of vice president he will be.鈥�

Watch聽鈥� Walz on Education:

When Walz took the stage, he began by praising Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who was also a finalist for the VP role.

鈥淗e can bring the fire. This is a visionary leader,鈥� Walz said. 鈥淎lso, I have to tell you, everybody in America knows when you need a bridge fixed call that guy,鈥� in an apparent reference to Shapiro鈥檚 work to get a after it was damaged in a fiery crash in 2023.

He thanked Harris for bringing back the 鈥渏oy鈥� to the race for the White House.

Walz touched on several issues that illustrated his record as a lawmaker. He said he was old enough to remember 鈥渨hen it was Republicans who were talking about freedom. It turns out now, what they meant was the government should be free to invade your doctor鈥檚 office. In Minnesota, we respect our neighbors and their personal choices that they make, even if we wouldn鈥檛 make the same choice for ourselves.鈥�

He also spoke about the challenges he and his wife Gwen had using in-vitro fertilization to start their family. 鈥淲e spent years going through infertility treatments, and I remember praying every night for a call for good news, the pit in my stomach when the phone rang and the agony when we heard that the treatments hadn鈥檛 worked,鈥� Walz said. 鈥淪o it wasn鈥檛 by chance that when we welcomed our daughter into the world, we named her Hope.

When the vice president and I talk about freedom, we mean the freedom to make your own health care decisions, and for our children to be free to go to school without worrying they鈥檒l be shot dead in their classrooms,鈥� Walz added.

Walz next turned his focus on GOP vice presidential candidate, U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, mocking his oft-told origin story of growing up in rural Ohio.

鈥淟ike all regular people I grew up with in the heartland, J.D. studied at Yale, had his career funded by Silicon Valley billionaires, and then wrote a best seller trashing that community,鈥� Walz said. 鈥淐ome on, that鈥檚 not what Middle America is. And I gotta tell you, I can鈥檛 wait to debate the guy 鈥� that is if he鈥檚 willing to get off the couch and show up.鈥�

The Harris campaign said there were 14,000 people at Temple either watching the rally at the Liacouras Center, or in an overflow room at nearby McGonigle Hall.

Shapiro warmed up the crowd before Harris and Walz took the stage. The fired-up audience began a chant of 鈥渉e鈥檚 a weirdo鈥� when he mentioned Vance, a call-back to comments and that the Harris campaign has run with, branding Trump and Vance as 鈥渨eird.鈥�

鈥淚 love you, Philly. And you know, what else I love? I love being your Governor,鈥� Shapiro said. 鈥淚 want you to know I am going to continue to pour my heart and soul into serving you every single day as your governor, and I鈥檓 going to be working my tail off to make sure we make Kamala Harris and Tim Walz the next leaders of the United States of America.鈥�

If Shapiro was disappointed to not get the VP nod, however, he did not show it, thanking the audience and praising the Democratic ticket.

鈥淟et me tell you about my friend, Kamala Harris, someone I鈥檝e been friends with for two decades,鈥� Shapiro said. 鈥淪he is courtroom tough. She has a big heart, and she is battle tested and ready to go. Whether in a courtroom, whether fighting as attorney general, whether remembering the people who have oftentimes been left behind when she was sitting in the halls of power in the Senate, Kamala Harris has always understood that you got to be, every day, for the people.鈥�

Former President Donald Trump鈥檚 campaign released a statement shortly after the Walz news was announced Tuesday. 鈥淚t鈥檚 no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate 鈥� Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State,鈥� Trump campaign Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. 鈥淲alz is obsessed with spreading California鈥檚 dangerously liberal agenda far and wide. If Walz won鈥檛 tell voters the truth, we will: just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American鈥檚 nightmare.鈥�

Walz gets positive response

U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-4th District) said after the rally that she had been pulling for Shapiro to get the VP nod, but was impressed with Harris鈥� pick. 鈥淚 was a hometown girl for Josh, but I think this is a terrific combination and Josh will be right by their side, lifting up this ticket,鈥� Dean said. 鈥淭his is a ticket that believes in the American values of small d, democracy, rule of law and freedom. It couldn鈥檛 be a greater contrast, so this was spectacular.鈥�

Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, the city鈥檚 100th mayor and the first Black woman to hold the position, was the first local elected official to speak at the rally on Tuesday.

鈥淚 need you to know that this is a history-making day here in Philadelphia and in our country because we are on the cusp of electing our Vice President Kamala Harris to be the 47th president of the United States of America,鈥� Harris said, to big applause.

Parker praised Harris鈥� record as vice president and noted they are both 鈥渄ivine nine sisters and graduates of Historically Black colleges and universities.鈥�

Parker warned about staying focused on the race.

鈥淒on鈥檛 let Trump the trickster take our eyes off the prize,鈥� Parker said. 鈥淲e have to remember that there is nothing that is more important than electing the Harris-Walz team and taking them where they belong, to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.鈥�

Carlos Ruiz III of Philadelphia told the Capital-Star that prior to the rally his first choice for vice president was Shapiro, but after doing some research on Walz, he liked what he read and is happy with the pick.

鈥淚 think one of the, one of the groups of voters that she was probably going to have a hard time connecting with was older white voters, and I think that鈥檚 probably why she leaned towards Gov. Walz鈥� Ruiz said. 鈥淎nd he鈥檚 very relatable, seems like the everyday kind of guy, and I think that鈥檚 going to bring what was missing to the ticket.鈥�

Jane Poblano, a teacher from Montgomery County, told the Capital-Star that Walz seems like a 鈥済reat guy, very humble,鈥� and offered words of encouragement to him joining the ticket.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a good choice,鈥� Poblano said. 鈥淪he had a lot of good choices.鈥�

How it started/How it鈥檚 going

The month of July began with Biden trailing in the polls after a poor debate performance in late June raised concerns about whether he could beat GOP nominee Donald Trump. Two days before the Republican National Convention, a gunman shot at Trump during a rally in Butler, killing one rally-goer and injuring two others. The following weekend, Biden bowed out of the race and immediately endorsed Harris, with Democrats quickly coalescing behind her candidacy.

Late Monday, the Democratic National Committee announced Harris had secured the support of 99% of delegates to formally become the party鈥檚 presidential nominee, following the conclusion of a five-day virtual vote.  She is expected to formally accept the nomination at the Democratic National Convention later this month.

The Biden-Harris $284.1 million between January 2023 and June 30, 2024,  while Trump鈥檚 campaign raised $217.2 million during that time period. Trump entered July with $128.1 million on hand, while Biden鈥檚 campaign had $96 million on hand.

But Harris raised $310 million in July according to her campaign, while Trump鈥檚 campaign said it raised $138 million.

And although the election is still less than three months away, Pennsylvanians are already being inundated with ads and will continue to be throughout the campaign. showed that Trump and Harris are slated to spend more than twice as much on advertising in Pennsylvania as any of the other pivotal battleground states.

Another race in the commonwealth garnering  a lot off ad spending is Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey鈥檚 bid for a fourth term against Republican challenger Dave McCormick.

At the rally on Tuesday, Casey praised Harris鈥� record 鈥渁s a prosecutor putting away dangerous criminals, to her time in the United States Senate and as vice president, fighting for women鈥檚 rights, voting rights, and workers rights.鈥�

He also told the crowd that they couldn鈥檛 trust McCormick, referencing his recent previous residency in Connecticut and work as a hedge fund manager.

McCormick, who was also in Philadelphia on Tuesday, sent out a statement earlier in the day calling Harris-Walz the 鈥渕ost liberal presidential ticket in history鈥� and linked them with Casey  on border policies, inflation, energy production, and other issues.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), delivered brief remarks at the rally on Tuesday noting that he鈥檚 a 鈥測inzer,鈥� Steelers and Sheetz guy, referencing his roots on the opposite side of the commonwealth 鈥� which drew boos from the crowd 鈥� he said they were all on team Harris/Walz, which drew applause.

鈥淭his election is about moving our country forward with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz,鈥� Fetterman said. 鈥淥r a couple of really really really really weird dudes.鈥�

After Fetterman exited the stage, some 鈥淓-A-G-L-E-S鈥� chants broke out.

While most of the state鈥檚 delegation backed Shapiro to join the ticket, about having him in the role.

Prior to Biden鈥檚 exit from the race, Trump was consistently polling slightly ahead of Biden in Pennsylvania. However, since Harris emerged as the presumptive nominee, shows the race in a statistical tie.

鈥淥ne of the things that stood out to me about Tim is how his convictions on fighting for middle class families run deep. It鈥檚 personal,鈥� Harris said in a statement  Tuesday, offering praise for Walz鈥檚 record as governor, including passing a law to provide paid family and medical leave and making Minnesota the first state in the country to pass a law providing constitutional abortion protections, and  a bill requiring universal background checks for gun purchases.

Tuesday is Harris鈥� seventh visit to Pennsylvania this year, according to the campaign. Her most recent appearance in the commonwealth was on . She鈥檚 also to tout the administration鈥檚 infrastructure investments, in , and in Montgomery County to . Harris has been the Biden administration鈥檚 primary voice on abortion rights, particularly in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade.

And in case anyone doubted Philadelphia鈥檚 importance in the 2024 race, Vance on Tuesday as well, for his first campaign event in Pennsylvania.

Trump was most recently in the state last Wednesday for an indoor rally in Harrisburg, since the assassination attempt.

Harris鈥檚 campaign swing with her running mate begins in Pennsylvania, then she鈥檚 scheduled to campaign in other key battleground states over the next few days. Planned campaign stops in and were postponed due to Hurricane Debby.

Trump and Vance are also slated to make appearances in key battleground states later this week.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Kim Lyons for questions: info@penncapital-star.com. Follow Pennsylvania Capital-Star on and .

Kamala Harris鈥� new running mate is an unabashedly progressive midwestern governor who appeals to veterans, hunters and football fans. If elected, he鈥檇 also be the first K-12 educator since Lyndon Johnson to be vice president, boasting the deepest connection to public schools of any candidate in recent memory.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is a former high school teacher and football coach who enacted a free college tuition program and expanded free school lunch statewide. But Walz, 60, a former congressional lawmaker who is in his second term as governor, may also carry left-of-center baggage that weighs down the ticket in a tight presidential race, observers said.

Walz rose to prominence earlier this year by informally leading Democrats鈥� turn to calling Republicans 鈥渨eird,鈥� suggesting in interviews that they鈥檙e out of touch and relying on culture-war fodder instead of issues Americans care about. 

Tim Walz first year as a high school football coach and geography teacher

鈥� Andy Kaczynski (@KFILE)

鈥淲ho鈥檚 sitting in a bar in Racine, Wisconsin, saying, 鈥榊ou know what we really need? We need to ban 鈥淎nimal Farm.鈥濃�� Nobody is!鈥� Walz with MSNBC.

In a introducing himself released by the campaign Tuesday, Walz described the 鈥渟mall-town鈥� values he learned growing up in Nebraska and later tried to instill in his students: 鈥渞espect, compromise, service to country. And so when I went into government, that’s what I carried with me.鈥�

Harris echoed those themes in a speech at Temple University in Philadelphia Tuesday evening, calling him 鈥渢he kind of teacher and mentor that every child in America dreams of having and that every kid deserves.鈥�

As governor, Walz put forward an education agenda that unions have cheered, signing a nearly state budget last year that significantly increased funding for the state鈥檚 public schools. He also signed into law a new $1,750-per-child tax credit that he said will help reduce childhood poverty.

Walz enacted for Minnesota families earning less than $80,000 per year. Analysts predict it鈥檒l cost the state around $117 million in fiscal year 2025 and $49.5 million annually after that.

With a $17.5 billion budget surplus last year, Walz promised 鈥渢o put it behind our teachers so we can educate our children.”

Despite the 鈥渉istoric鈥� spending, school districts throughout Minnesota last spring were facing massive cuts, the one-two punch of the end of COVID recovery aid and enrollment losses. 

The state鈥檚 second-largest district, St. Paul Public Schools, projects a $150 million deficit for the 2024-25 academic year. Minneapolis Public Schools anticipates a $116 million shortfall. And even the most prosperous Twin Cities suburbs must explain the disconnect to families who moved there for their well-funded schools.

Free lunch for all

Walz enlisted in the Army National Guard after high school and attended Chadron State College. He earned a social science degree in 1989, and spent a year in one of the first government-sanctioned groups of American educators to teach in China.

Walz went on to serve full time in the Army National Guard, retiring in 2005 as a command sergeant major. 

He and his wife, Gwen, met while teaching in Nebraska. They worked together at Mankato, Minn., West High School, where he taught social studies and coached football. She taught English and later served as a district administrator. 

Former colleagues said the couple were powerhouse teachers who balanced out each other鈥檚 energy-levels. He was animated, they . She was more reserved.

鈥淗e came in very outgoing, very gregarious,鈥� former social studies teacher Pat Griffiths told The Post. 鈥淚f there were 100 people in a room and 99 loved him, he would work on the one who didn鈥檛 until they did too.鈥�

Another colleague told of a prank that a group of teachers played on Walz during his first semester there: They printed out a fake gift certificate for a free turkey as a bogus 鈥渨elcome gift,鈥� to be collected at a local grocery store. 

Walz returned to school with the turkey. 

In 2006, he won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeating a Republican incumbent in Minnesota鈥檚 rural First District, which typically leans Republican. He served six terms before being elected governor in 2018.

These days, Walz is widely known on the national stage for last year鈥檚 Minnesota Free School Meals law, which made school breakfast and lunch free for all students, regardless of income. It made Minnesota the fourth state to do so after California, Colorado and Maine. Currently, offer free meals to all students.

At the time, Walz said the measure 鈥減uts us one step closer to making Minnesota the best state for kids to grow up.鈥�

During debate on the bill in March 2023, state Sen. Steve Drazkowski, a Republican, questioned whether food insecurity was even an issue in the state, saying, 鈥淚 have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that is hungry. I have yet to meet a person in Minnesota that says they don鈥檛 have access to enough food to eat.鈥�

A video of his speech went viral, garnering on X and plenty of criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike.

Recent coverage suggests that though the program is popular and the state鈥檚 surplus helps keep it afloat, the free-meals program than expected: an extra $81 million over the next two years and $95 million in the two years after that.

Walz has also criticized education savings accounts, saying they don鈥檛 help rural areas. Support for these accounts, championed by conservatives, may have hurt Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro鈥檚 prospects to become Harris鈥� running mate. 

A lifelong hunter, Walz shifted substantially on gun safety, moving from an 鈥淎鈥� rating from the National Rifle Association in 2016 to endorsing an assault weapons ban after the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. At the time, Walz said his then-17-year-old daughter asked him to do more on gun safety. He donated his NRA contributions to charity.

The move turned his rating to 鈥渟traight F’s,鈥� . 鈥淎nd I sleep just fine.鈥�

On Tuesday, after word leaked about Harris picking Walz, gun safety activist and Parkland survivor David Hogg on X, 鈥淚鈥檓 smiling a mile wide right now.鈥� 

Extreme or Norman Rockwell?

Policies like these have earned Walz endorsements on the left 鈥� American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on Tuesday called him 鈥渁n unabashed champion for public education, for educators and workers.鈥� 

It also doesn鈥檛 hurt that Mary Cathryn Ricker, Walz鈥檚 first state education commissioner, was a former AFT vice president. Before that, she led the St. Paul Federation of Teachers.

At Temple University Tuesday evening, Walz spoke of his 20-year career as a teacher and his wife鈥檚 29-year tenure, saying, 鈥淒on鈥檛 ever underestimate teachers.鈥�

Walz鈥檚 career nearly derailed when he was pulled over in a drunk driving incident as a 31-year-old teacher in Nebraska. As the reported, he was stopped for driving 96 mph in a 55-mph zone. He failed a field sobriety test, but later pleaded guilty to reckless driving, a misdemeanor. He left the state in 1996, when he continued teaching and coaching football in Mankato.

Invoking his time as a coach there, Harris said he was a role model 鈥� on and off the field. She recounted the story of one of the first openly gay students at Walz鈥檚 school, who sought to start a gay-straight alliance 鈥渁t a time when acceptance was difficult to find.鈥�

Harris said Walz 鈥渒new the signal that it would send to have a football coach get involved. So he signed up to be the group’s faculty advisor. And as students have said, he made the school a safe place for everybody.鈥�

But in a tight race, Walz’s progressive credentials could spell trouble for Harris, said Rick Hess, director of education policy studies at the conservative .

Hess called the Walz pick 鈥渁n odd choice鈥� in a race in which Harris already has teachers鈥� union backing but needs to shore up support among independents and conservatives. He suggested that Shapiro might have been a better match for those constituencies.

鈥淵ou couldn’t get the NEA and AFT working any harder for Harris than they already are,鈥� he said. 鈥淪he’s already broken out 鈥榯he full pander鈥� for them.鈥�

Hess said Harris likely chose Walz as a 鈥渧ibe pick鈥� who suits midwesterners in style if not substance: 鈥淗e looks like a big, burly high school football coach, assistant principal, kind of sensible guy from Middle America鈥� who served in the military, 鈥渨hereas Shapiro looks like an investment banker. Part of the calculation might be that that visual is worth plenty.鈥�

Harris may also be trying to 鈥渂uy herself a lot more leeway with the left so she can keep tacking back to the middle on issues 鈥� and the left will be happy because they feel like Walz is one of them.鈥�

It鈥檚 possible centrists or moderates in battleground states will be swayed by Walz, Hess said, but his progressive policy solutions could stop them in their tracks. 鈥淭he guy’s a high school teacher who has been in the National Guard for 20 years,鈥� he said. 鈥淗is politics are extreme, but his profile, his biography, is about as Norman Rockwell as you can get.鈥�

That moment when you鈥檙e a union president, and find out that a teacher and union member is going to be the next vice-president.

We鈥檙e excited for former public school teacher & AFT member to join on the ballot this November!

鈥� AFT (@AFTunion)

But Chris Stewart, CEO of and an education blogger based in Minneapolis, said framing Walz in traditional political terms is misleading. Minnesota may be progressive, but it鈥檚 鈥渘ot wild and crazy. We’re not San Francisco. 鈥� I don’t think people know how purple Minnesota can be,鈥� he said of . 

Despite the divide, Stewart said, Walz has succeeded with a 鈥渧ery slim majority鈥� in the state legislature. 

But rather than judging Walz on a 鈥渓eft-right continuum,鈥� he said, we should look at him as 鈥渏ust a better version of a great American Democrat. He is not left or right in the way that we traditionally think about things. He kind of breaks that binary.鈥�

Addressing thousands of her party鈥檚 most loyal supporters just days after being endorsed by President Joe Biden, to defend labor rights and beat back Republican plans to dissolve the U.S. Department of Education. Above all, she heaped praise on members of the nation鈥檚 eighth-largest union, which she said was engaged in 鈥渢he most noble work: teaching other people鈥檚 children.鈥�

鈥淎nd God knows,鈥� she quickly added, 鈥渨e don鈥檛 pay you enough.鈥�

Harris made no firm commitments in her 20 minutes of remarks, only her second major speech . Yet that near-digression unmistakably echoed the signature idea of her 2020 presidential campaign 鈥� and quite possibly provided a preview of what she intends to accomplish in the White House.

More than five years ago, when then-Sen. Harris was considered one of the betting favorites to win the Democratic nomination and contest Donald Trump鈥檚 reelection, she pitched her first major policy offering directly to teachers. While her fellow progressives broadcast their ambitions to enact and , she unveiled to raise teacher salaries with state and federal funds, potentially closing the earnings gap between educators and other comparably educated professionals. 

The proposal reflected the upheaval of the #RedforEd movement, which had launched a wave of teacher strikes the previous year, remembered Sarah Shapiro, a former staffer at the liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) who volunteered for Harris鈥檚 failed 2020 bid. But it also demonstrated Harris鈥檚 abiding focus on schools and their employees, she said.

鈥淚t showed how ambitious she is in advocating for public schools and supporting that workforce, which has continued to struggle since the pandemic,鈥� said Shapiro, now a Democratic staffer in the U.S. Senate.

Whether the vice president dusts off her promise to boost teacher pay is one of several questions that could define the K鈥�12 agenda going forward if she prevails over Trump in November. With the Democratic National Convention just weeks away, she and her advisers will soon decide if voters want sweeping changes to federal education policy 鈥� in effect, a progressive version of the Heritage Foundation鈥檚 controversial Project 2025 鈥� or a more measured continuation of the program that Biden and Harris have pursued the last four years.

Those efforts have included massive expenditures in pandemic relief aid and student loan forgiveness, but little drive to comprehensively lift academic achievement or transform how education is delivered. Nearly a decade after the eclipse of the No Child Left Behind Act, some longtime observers believe the Democrats鈥� always-fickle dance with school reform and choice has faltered completely. 

Michael Petrilli, president of the reform-friendly Thomas B. Fordham Institute and an alumnus of the Education Department from the early days of NCLB, said Harris had a unique opportunity to realize her own vision for schools. Unburdened by primary challengers who might have obliged her to define her goals earlier, he argued, she could spend the remainder of the campaign filling a blank canvas.

鈥淪he hasn’t had to make any specific promises, and she hasn’t put any policy positions out there that are her own,鈥� Petrilli said. 鈥淪o she’s got a free hand.鈥�

Red for Ed鈥檚 legacy

Harris was presented with a somewhat similar freedom in 2020, albeit in drastically different circumstances. 

That primary campaign featured an astonishing 29 major candidates, including brand names like Bernie Sanders and would-be giant killers like Pete Buttiegieg. From the outset, the freshman senator was considered , drawing huge crowds to her speeches and enjoying enviable polling numbers.

In the middle of that honeymoon phase, Harris opted to wade head-on into the K鈥�12 debate. Her teacher pay reform would have given the average American teacher a $13,500 raise, with Washington picking up 10 percent of the tab. Thereafter, the campaign said, the federal government would pay $3 for every dollar contributed by states to close their compensation gap between teachers and other professionals with similar credentials and experience.

It made for an unusual centerpiece to her campaign rollout. At a time when her opponents were brainstorming billion-dollar initiatives seemingly every week 鈥� from Andrew Yang鈥檚 push for a to Cory Booker鈥檚 enthusiasm for 鈥� comparatively few addressed education. Surveyed about their positions on the issue, forgiving student debt, making community college free, and whether they鈥檇 sent their own children to public schools. When Sen. Elizabeth Warren鈥檚 famously detail-oriented campaign released its principal contribution on children and families, it childcare subsidies rather than schools as such.

Jorge Elorza, a rising star in the Democratic Party then serving in his second term as mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, said he appreciated Harris鈥檚 willingness to throw down the gauntlet to her primary opponents.

鈥淚t was during a campaign where many of the other candidates didn’t propose much around K鈥�12,鈥� said Elorza, who now leads the advocacy group . 鈥淚 give her credit for thinking big and coming out with a significant proposal on education.鈥�

Democrats had spent much of the prior four years trying to forge a new path on education and shed some of the dissension that had wracked their coalition throughout much of the reform era. Hillary Clinton鈥檚 showed a willingness to move away from standardized testing and toward a closer embrace of teachers鈥� unions, whose leaders were some of Clinton鈥檚 closest allies. 

The Trump administration only accelerated that process, with Democrats finding it 鈥渉ard to be associated with anything鈥� the president or Education Secretary Betsy DeVos supported, Elorza recalled. When thousands of teachers, dissatisfied with paychecks that had never recovered from cuts enacted during the Great Recession, marched on state capitols in the #RedforEd summer of 2018, Harris for the cause.

When she announced her presidential candidacy a few months later, she also benefited from the help of some of the progressive movement鈥檚 most influential thinkers on education. Catherine Brown, then the vice president of education policy at CAP, assisted the campaign as a volunteer by helping draft its K鈥�12 plans. 

Alongside the sizable commitment to increased teacher pay, Harris鈥檚 agenda included a slew of ideas to bolster the attractiveness of teaching, including more resources for professional development, career ladders and mentorship programs, and a large fund dedicated to training teachers at minority-serving colleges and universities. Many of the same recommendations appeared to be inspired by CAP鈥檚 , launched in the late Obama era in the hopes of modernizing the profession.

Brown said Harris鈥檚 team went through a 鈥渞eally strong policymaking process鈥� to develop its education platform, including multiple iterations, cost modeling, and thorough consultations with K鈥�12 experts. Even five years later, bits and pieces of its workforce proposals are mirrored in to deal with increased teacher turnover following the pandemic. Though her primary campaign ultimately fell short of the finish line, running out of money by the end of 2019, its legacy was unique, she continued. 

鈥淚 don’t remember a lot of other elected officials coming to us and saying, ‘How do we make these ideas real?’ So that was exciting.”

Open playing field for choice

The question now is how much Harris will seek to build on her previous bid and its various policy items. 

The Biden presidency offers scant clues about what direction its desired successor might take. While it mobilized unprecedented federal funding to cope with the post-COVID crisis in student learning, those resources were, by design, awarded without substantial obligations for states to reform longstanding practices or demonstrate much evidence of achievement growth. In comparison with the Obama administration鈥檚 highly prescriptive Race to the Top initiative 鈥� or even Biden鈥檚 own maneuvers to wipe out billions in student loan payments 鈥� its goals have, at times, .

The lack of clarity is notable at a moment when, according to recent testing data, eighth-graders still lag far behind their pre-COVID learning trajectories. A long-awaited revision of Title IX regulations will be held up in court indefinitely following challenges from Republican officials, while the Department of Education鈥檚 , called 鈥淩aise the Bar,鈥� has yet to break through to public attention. Meanwhile, last week鈥檚 public embrace of unionized teachers could trouble the waters with parents them for putting the brakes on attempts to lift pandemic restrictions on in-person learning.

Carmel Martin, a veteran Democratic staffer who served as Harris鈥檚 domestic policy advisor through 2023, wrote in an email that her former boss saw teachers as 鈥渢he most important assets that our education system has鈥� and would likely continue to press for better pay on their behalf.  

鈥淭he vice president was acutely aware of the toll in terms of academic progress, but also the mental and emotional health of our children,鈥� wrote Martin, now a special secretary to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. 鈥淎s president, I am sure she will continue to prioritize investment in our students, teachers and schools.鈥�  

Brown said the party has long since accepted the breakup of the reform consensus, but hasn鈥檛 yet produced a roadmap for the next Democratic White House. 

鈥淚 don’t think K鈥�12 was unimportant to [the Biden administration], but we’ve sort of gotten past NCLB, and there’s a moment now to ask, ‘What’s the priority now?’鈥� she said. 鈥淚’m sure a lot of people are working on that, but that question has not been answered yet.”

Petrill believes the issue of education could be the ideal avenue for Harris to outflank Trump by . In addition to whatever new spending commitments she may prefer, the vice president could take advantage of her background in law enforcement to strike a more assertive tone on school discipline.

Such a tack might lead to the development of a federal response to eye-watering rates of chronic absenteeism, which could easily derail any possibility of a meaningful learning recovery. In a move that later proved controversial, Harris used her powers as both San Francisco鈥檚 district attorney and California鈥檚 attorney general . Given that absenteeism in their federal school accountability frameworks, a President Harris could have scope for public intervention. 

Better still, Petrilli added, Harris could once again embrace charter schools, which previously had the support of Presidents Clinton and Obama but fell out of favor under Trump. With the GOP now increasingly focused on facilitating the rapid spread of education savings accounts, which channel public funding to families to spend on educational costs like private school tuition, he said it is possible to re-engage the millions of parents who rely on public school choice. 

鈥淵ou’ve got Republicans, who have moved away from public education reform into just talking about private school choice, and the Democrats are mostly just talking about more money,鈥� Petrilli said. 鈥淭hat does leave a lot of the playing field open.鈥�

At the same time, the likely nominee must tread carefully around the issue of public support for private schools. Already, an alliance of education advocacy groups has publicly asked her not to tap Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate; Shapiro has in his home state to support a form of school vouchers in exchange for increasing funding for public education.

Elorza praised the K鈥�12 record of the Biden-Harris administration, which he credited with providing desperately needed funds to keep schools鈥� doors open and payrolls solvent. But now that the emergency is over, he said, there should follow a 鈥渕oment of realignment鈥� that scales up promising new innovations in education, from personalized learning to high-dosage tutoring.

鈥淚 remember being mayor at the time of the pandemic, and what we needed was resources to make sure we could keep the lights on,鈥� said Elorza. 鈥淣ow there’s an opportunity to craft a new agenda.鈥�

With Joe Biden out and Kamala Harris in, the Democrats鈥� last-minute, presumptive presidential nominee will once again have to reckon with her 鈥� and their nationwide surge since the pandemic 鈥� as she faces off against Donald Trump between now and November. 

Elected first as San Francisco district attorney and then California attorney general, Harris has offered her tough-on-crime bonafides on the newly forged campaign trail as an alternative to Trump, a convicted felon. Yet just five years ago, her signature education issue as California鈥檚 top cop 鈥� as she sometimes called herself 鈥� was . 

By portraying a crackdown on student truancy as a way to avert future criminals, Harris championed a California truancy law that set into motion a hold-parents-accountable approach that leveraged fines and jail time for chronic absences that are including health problems and homelessness.

Parents, as a result, wound up behind bars. Such an outcome, Harris said during her failed presidential bid in 2019, was an 鈥渦nintended consequence.鈥� 

• Fast forward to 2024: A coalition of education nonprofits launched a bipartisan effort last week to slash chronic absenteeism in half over the next five years, with one expert noting that punitive measures 鈥渄o nothing but burden families.鈥� 

In the news

A Big Tech reckoning on child safety? Senate Democrats renewed efforts this week to pass the most sweeping tech industry regulations in decades, with the goal of formalizing new online privacy protections for children before their August recess. Taken together, two bills would ban companies from feeding content and targeted ads to teens with algorithms and hold tech firms to a 鈥渄uty of care鈥� to ensure their products don鈥檛 harm kids. |

The White House isn鈥檛 waiting for Congress to act. In new guidance, a Biden administration task force outlines strategies parents can use to ensure their children are using the internet safely. |

From AllHere to where? The Los Angeles superintendent plans to appoint a task force to examine what went wrong 鈥� and how to move forward 鈥� after a company that built its $6 million AI chatbot went kaput. The task force will look into allegations that the company misused L.A. students鈥� data before it collapsed under financial strain. The allegations were first reported by yours truly. |

• Superintendent Alberto Carvalho remains committed to the supposed AI revolution in education, but Los Angeles parents are urging the rhetorically high-flying schools chief to pump the brakes and focus on pressing issues including a literacy crisis and student homelessness epidemic. |

New York educators must alert parents at least a week in advance of lockdown drills under new regulations that require the safety routines be conducted in 鈥渁 trauma-informed, developmentally and age-appropriate manner.鈥� |

Ending 鈥榝orced disclosure鈥�: A new California law prohibits school districts from imposing rules that require teachers to notify parents when a student changes their gender identity. |

A Justice Department lawsuit alleges that employees at Southwest Key, a nonprofit that serves as the largest operator of shelters for unaccompanied migrant children, repeatedly subjected minors under its care to sexual abuse and harassment. |

No qualified immunity: Three Honolulu police officers can be sued on excessive force allegations that stem from a 2020 incident in which the cops handcuffed and arrested a 10-year-old girl at her elementary school. 鈥淣o reasonable official could have believed that the level of force employed against鈥� the student was necessary, a panel of federal judges wrote in their decision. |

A ransomware attack targeting the Pueblo, Colorado, school district led to a massive data breach that exposed the sensitive information of students over a 15-year period. |

The high cost of cyber crime: About two-thirds of K-12 schools were hit by ransomware in the last year, according to a new report by the cybersecurity company Sophos. That鈥檚 a significant decrease from 2023, when 80% were targets. But recovery costs have surged over the last year 鈥� from $1.6 million to more than $3.75 million. |

ICYMI @THE74

• Advocates Fear Minnesota Students Will Again Be Subject to Restraint Used on George Floyd

• Youngkin Signs Order on 鈥楥ell Phone-Free Education鈥� in Virginia Public Schools

• Parents of Children with Special Needs Charge LAUSD Limiting Services, Holding Back Information

Emotional Support

I鈥檓 pleased to announce that Mika has joined the School (in)Security team after an exhaustive, nationwide search. I鈥檓 told that Mika 鈥� who was hired alongside 社区黑料鈥檚 new editor-in-chief Nicole Ridgway 鈥� offers extensive experience and 鈥渟onar dish鈥� ears that detect news leads with unrivaled precision. 

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鈥淢y first-grade teacher, Mrs. Wilson, encouraged me when I was her student,鈥� Harris back in 2021. 鈥淵ears later [she] cheered me on when I graduated from law school.

鈥淭his year and every year, we celebrate America’s teachers, who make a lifelong impact on America’s students.鈥� 

Here鈥檚 what else Harris has had to say about Mrs. Wilson: 

Other recent EDlection coverage from 社区黑料: 

• Polling Data: Presidents Split the Public on Schools
  
• Endorsing Harris: Nation鈥檚 Second-Largest Teachers Union Endorses Harris for President
  
• Project 2025: Plan Would Cut Education Department, Fulfill Conservative K-12 Wish List Under Trump
  
• Get the Latest Updates on the Election & Education: Sign Up For 社区黑料鈥檚 Newsletter 

鈥淚 spoke in support of the resolution 鈥� for our students, our patients, our families, our communities, our democracy and ourselves!鈥� union President Randi Weingarten wrote on from the AFT鈥檚 2024 convention in Houston. 鈥淟et鈥檚 win this!鈥�

The delegates ratified the AFT Executive Council鈥檚 unanimous vote Sunday evening to endorse Harris, mere hours after President Joe Biden upended the race with his historic announcement that he was giving up his embattled candidacy. The council鈥檚 swift action positioned the country鈥檚 second-largest teachers union as one of the first major labor organizations to get behind the vice president.

鈥淰ice President Harris has fought alongside Joe Biden to deliver historic accomplishments and create a better life for all Americans,鈥� Weingarten said in the statement released early Sunday evening.

鈥淭rump left his successor a country in crisis and chaos, with soaring inflation and an economy in free fall,鈥� she added. 鈥淛oe Biden and Kamala Harris turned it around. They stabilized schools, saved pensions for hundreds of thousands of retired union workers and remade the economy.鈥澛�

The AFT has placed its significant political heft alongside other key unions supporting Harris, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation鈥檚 largest private sector union, and the United Farm Workers, the nation鈥檚 largest farm workers鈥� union.

The labor endorsements followed Biden鈥檚 own for Harris and were promptly joined by a chorus of other , including former House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Bill and Hillary Clinton and several governors, who were either being considered themselves as potential Biden successors or , such as Michigan鈥檚 Gretchen Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania. U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona also came out in support of Harris on Sunday.

After Biden鈥檚 announcement, Weingarten scrambled to rewrite some of her planned remarks at the kickoff to the convention, according to reporting from Just earlier that morning she criticized efforts to push Biden out of the race, telling Weekly Education, 鈥淭his fantasy that billionaire donors are having, that they can yoke this away from the president because they don鈥檛 like his performance at the debate, is wrong.鈥� 

By the afternoon, though, she emphasized the importance of uniting around

In Harris鈥檚 for president, she advocated for universal preschool and free college and called for a $13,500 raise for every teacher by the end of her first term.

Becky Pringle, president of the nation鈥檚 largest teacher鈥檚 union, the National Education Association, took a different approach to the game-changing news, leaving out any mention of Harris in her tweets Sunday thanking President Biden for his service. Instead, she noted that the NEA will 鈥渞enew our efforts to ensure he is succeeded by a leader equally dedicated to building the future our students, educators, and families deserve.鈥�

The can be found below.

President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race Sunday, he said in , creating an unprecedented vacancy atop the Democratic ticket one month before he was scheduled to officially accept his party鈥檚 nomination.

In a followup  less than 30 minutes later, Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place as the Democratic nominee.

Biden鈥檚 withdrawal came after a weeks-long pressure campaign from party insiders following a  June 27 debate performance against GOP candidate former President Donald Trump.

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The move throws an already-unusual presidential race into further chaos, and it was not immediately clear Sunday how Democrats would choose a replacement for Biden in November鈥檚 election, though Harris would have a strong claim to lead the ticket.

Biden praised Harris as 鈥渁n extraordinary partner鈥� in the administration鈥檚 accomplishments.

Biden, who has been fighting a COVID-19 infection at home in Delaware since last week, was not specific about his reasons for stepping aside, but said he believed it was in the country鈥檚 best interest.

鈥淚t has been the great honor of my life to serve as your President,鈥� he wrote in the one-page letter. 鈥淎nd while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.鈥�

Biden, 81, appeared frail and confused at several points throughout the debate, leading to worries among elected Democrats and the party鈥檚 voters that he was no longer up to the task of governing or contesting Trump鈥檚 bid to win back the White House.

As several congressional Democrats called for him to quit the race, others asked that he ramp up his public schedule and include more unrehearsed appearances that could demonstrate his fitness.

But a more robust schedule of news interviews, press conferences and campaign rallies did not sufficiently quiet the Democratic voices saying Biden鈥檚 candidacy was likely to throw the presidential race to Trump 鈥� whom Biden and others have described as an existential threat to U.S. democracy 鈥� and deeply handicap Democrats in other races up and down November鈥檚 ballot.

On Friday, Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio and  brought the number of senators calling on Biden to drop out to four. A day earlier, Montana Sen. Jon Tester  Biden should drop his reelection campaign and that Democrats should hold an open nomination process at their Chicago convention next month.

In the U.S. House, 29 Democrats had called for Biden to withdraw from the race by the end of the day July 19.

In a post following the announcement to his social media site, Truth Social, Trump said Biden was 鈥渘ever鈥� fit to serve as president.

鈥淐rooked Joe Biden was not fit to run for President, and is certainly not fit to serve 鈥� And never was!鈥� Trump wrote. 鈥淗e only attained the position of President by lies, Fake News, and not leaving his Basement. All those around him, including his Doctor and the Media, knew that he wasn鈥檛 capable of being President, and he wasn鈥檛 鈥� And now, look what he鈥檚 done to our Country.鈥�

More details of announcement

In the letter, Biden praised his administration鈥檚 accomplishments over three-and-a-half years, saying he鈥檇 worked to make 鈥渉istoric investments鈥� in the country, lowered prescription drug costs, nominated the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court and 鈥減assed the most significant climate legislation in the history of the world.鈥�

鈥淭ogether we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,鈥� Biden wrote. 鈥淲e鈥檝e protected and preserved our Democracy. And we鈥檝e revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world.鈥�

Biden said he would 鈥渟peak to the Nation later this week鈥� about the decision.

He praised Harris and other supporters.

鈥淔or now, let me express my deepest gratitude to all those who have worked so hard to see me reelected,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淚 want to thank Vice President Kamala Harris for being an extraordinary partner in all this work. And let me express my heartfelt appreciation to the American people for the faith and trust you have placed in me.鈥�

In follow-up posts, Biden said he was endorsing Harris and added a fundraising link.

鈥淢y very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 been the best decision I鈥檝e made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats 鈥� it鈥檚 time to come together and beat Trump. Let鈥檚 do this.鈥�

Trump gains in polls

The about face in what was to be a 2020 presidential election rematch leaves Democrats searching for a new candidate as Trump, who promises authoritarian-style leadership, has gained support in recent polls.

With just 107 days until Election Day, Biden鈥檚 move marks the latest date in modern presidential history that a candidate has withdrawn from the race.

President Lyndon Johnson announced in March 1968 that he would not seek reelection that year, leaving Democratic delegates to decide on a replacement 鈥� ultimately Vice President Hubert Humphrey 鈥� at the party鈥檚 convention that summer in Chicago.

Harris appears to be in a strong position to replace Biden as the party鈥檚 standard bearer, though questions remain about how the process will play out and  would become the vice presidential nominee.

Democrats praise decision

Reaction poured in shortly after the Sunday afternoon announcement, with Democrats largely praising Biden鈥檚 record and calling his decision courageous.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement that he understood Biden鈥檚 decision to step out of the race was 鈥渘ot easy, but he once again put his country, his party, and our future first.鈥�

鈥淛oe Biden has not only been a great president and a great legislative leader but he is a truly amazing human being,鈥� the New York Democrat said.

Several Republicans called for Biden to resign his office.

鈥淚f Joe Biden is not fit to run for President, he is not fit to serve as President,鈥� House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X. 鈥淗e must resign the office immediately. November 5 cannot arrive soon enough.鈥�

A crescendoing chorus to step down

Biden faced calls for him to abandon his reelection bid from congressional Democrats, even as he tried to stabilize the debate aftershock by holding a series of campaign rallies,  for  and holding a press conference at.

Democratic lawmakers   a public front of support for Biden in statements and passing interviews in the U.S. Capitol hallways with reporters.

What began as a trickle of dissent from rank-and-file Democrats 鈥�  with Rep. Lloyd Doggett of Texas and a handful of doubtful senior House Democrats 鈥� steadily grew to a torrent by Friday.

50-year career in Washington

Biden鈥檚 exit marks the closure of a long, storied career in Washington, including 38 years in the U.S. Senate, featuring stints leading the Foreign Affairs and Judiciary committees, and eight years as vice president under President Barack Obama.

Biden鈥檚 presidency was punctuated with major economic wins for Democrats, beginning with nearly $2 trillion to combat the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

His leadership with a Democratic majority in Congress resulted in substantial nationwide infrastructure investments, drove financial incentives to tackle climate change and revive the U.S. global role in semiconductor manufacturing, and strengthened flagging tax enforcement.

However, low approval ratings followed Biden throughout his presidency as Americans aimed their frustrations over inflation at the White House and assigned blame for record numbers of border crossings as a divided Congress 鈥� after Democrats lost their House majority in the 2022 midterms 鈥� failed to pass immigration restrictions negotiated with the administration.

Biden鈥檚 handling of the Israel-Hamas war also hurt his support among young and progressive voters as Israel鈥檚 continued offensive against Hamas militants in the Palestinian territory of the Gaza Strip killed tens of thousands of civilians. Protesters against the U.S. supply of weapons to Israel interrupted dozens of Biden鈥檚 reelection campaign events through 2024.

Ariana Figueroa contributed to this report.

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Ohio Capital Journal maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor David Dewitt for questions: info@ohiocapitaljournal.com. Follow Ohio Capital Journal on and .

Outraged at the new Black history standards in Florida, Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday blasted what she called revisionist history promoted in the state鈥檚 African American history standards approved this week by top education officials.

Just two days after the the standards, Harris told the crowd in Jacksonville at the Ritz Theater and Museum that Florida鈥檚 book bans, LGBTQ+ rights restrictions, and Black history revisions are part of a national right-wing agenda.

鈥淎dults know what slavery really involved. It involved rape; it involved torture; it involved taking a baby from their mother; it involved some of the worst examples of depriving people of humanity in our world; it involved subjecting people to think of themselves and be thought of as less than humans,鈥� Harris said.

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鈥淪o, in the context of that, how is it that anyone could suggest that, in the midst of these atrocities, that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?鈥�

Harris continued: 鈥淎nd so, let us be clear: Teachers want to teach the truth. Teachers want to teach facts. And teachers dedicate themselves to some of the most noble work any human being could take on: to teach other people鈥檚 children 鈥� for the sake of the future of our nation.

鈥淎nd so, they should not then be told by politicians that they should be teaching revisionist history in order to keep their jobs. What is going on?鈥�

Critics of the first stand-alone say they largely limit elementary school instruction to identifying famous Black people. At the middle school level, the standards describes slavery as personally beneficial in instances where the enslaved learned skills. High schoolers will learn that the 1920 Ocoee Massacre involved violence against and by African Americans.

Extremist leaders

While Gov. Ron DeSantis didn鈥檛 address any of the specific criticisms against the standards, he took to his campaign Twitter account to ahead of her arrival.

鈥淒emocrats like Kamala Harris have to lie about Florida鈥檚 educational standards to cover for their agenda of indoctrinating students and pushing sexual topics onto children,鈥� the governor wrote. 鈥淔lorida stands in their way and we will continue to expose their agenda and their lies. The Harris-Biden administration is obsessed with Florida 鈥� yet they ignore the chaos at the border, crime-infested cities, economic malaise, and the military recruitment crisis.鈥�

Aside from criticizing the standards, the vice president called out the state government鈥檚 lack of action against gun violence. Instead of wanting to arm teachers, leaders should be promoting gun safety, she said.

Ultimately, Harris characterized extremist leaders as figures fomenting culture wars meant to divide Americans.

鈥淟et鈥檚 not fall in that trap,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e will stand united as a country. We know our collective history; it is our shared history. We are all in this together.

鈥淲e know that we will rise and fall together as a nation. We will not allow them to suggest anything other than what we know: The vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us.鈥�

The whole story

For now, members of the work group that developed the African American history standards are focused on explaining how they concluded that Black people benefitted from slavery because they learned skills. A spokesperson from the Florida Department of Education published a statement on Thursday from two members of the work group, citing people like John Chavis and Booker T. Washington as examples of slaves who developed trades from which they benefitted.

鈥淎ny attempt to reduce slaves to just victims of oppression fails to recognize their strength, courage, and resiliency during a difficult time in American history,鈥� according to a statement by William Allen and Frances Presley Rice who helped develop the standards. 鈥淔lorida students deserve to learn how slaves took advantage of whatever circumstances they were in to benefit themselves and the community of African descendants.鈥�

Allen and Rice added: 鈥淚t is disappointing, but nevertheless unsurprising, that critics would reduce months of work to create Florida鈥檚 first ever stand-alone strand of African American History Standards to a few isolated expressions without context.鈥�

Even so, the work group鈥檚 statement didn鈥檛 tackle the backlash against other aspects of the standards.

Black lawmakers speak out

This teaching of the 1920 Ocoee Massacre is more personal for Orange County State Sen. Geraldine Thompson. In 2020, she helped champion a bill to add the massacre to Florida鈥檚 K-12 education curriculum. She spoke out against the standards during the Wednesday meeting.

鈥淲hen you look at the history, currently it suggests that the [Ocoee] massacre was sparked by violence from African Americans,鈥� she wrote in a statement on Friday. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 blaming the victim, when in fact it was other individuals who came into the Black Community cand killed individuals and burned homes, schools, lodges, etc. So we want to tell the whole story.鈥�

Other politicians such as State Rep. Dianne Hart from Hillsborough County commended Harris for her visit. Hart is the chair of the Florida Legislative Black Caucus.

鈥淚t is unfortunate that Florida has become the leader in all the wrong areas, and this new attempt to continue to diminish the importance of African-American history, and to present our students with a lack-luster version of the truth is evidence to that fact,鈥� she wrote in a statement. 鈥淎s chair of the Black Caucus, we have made this a priority issue and we will continue to advocate for truth, for facts, and for age-appropriate curriculum.鈥�

There has been no shortage of criticism toward the standards, but no concrete actions have been announced. Though, State Sen. Bobby Powell of West Palm Beach said the 鈥渟o-called鈥� standards needed to be thrown out.

鈥淲hen the dogs and the water cannons, the police batons, and the lynching mobs were let loose on these former African American slaves, was that for their 鈥榩ersonal benefit鈥� as well? He wrote. 鈥淭hese so-called standards need to be thrown out immediately, and a full and honest examination of what鈥檚 really driving this one-sided agenda needs to begin.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on and .

When Jennifer Huppert鈥檚 fifth-grade class at Boulder Elementary in Billings received a manila envelope in the mail, she thought it was probably another piece of junk mail sent in an official looking wrapper with a Washington, D.C., return address.

Huppert is constantly getting all sorts of offers, gimmicks and programs that arrive on her desk that look similar.

Just as Huppert was about to toss it, she noticed it said 鈥淰ice President of the United States, Washington, D.C.鈥�

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Still suspicious, she opened the package to see that it contained a letter to the students, and it was hand signed by Kamala Harris, the vice president of the United States.

The letter came to congratulate Huppert for her students鈥� participation in a program to learn more about Space Force, which included an online video conference with members of the nascent military branch who are stationed at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls.

The program was designed for one class in each of the 50 states and Puerto Rico to raise awareness about careers in math, science, space and the military. From those conversations, students learned more about the day-to-day operations of Space Force.

The program dovetailed well with what Huppert鈥檚 students were learning about from the stars, the planets, night sky, and yearly seasonal planet rotation.

Students in Huppert鈥檚 class were particularly fascinated by the topic of space junk 鈥� obsolete, broken or used objects 鈥� that stay in orbit, but can cause collisions or disrupt current operational satellites. The students are also doing calculations about how hard or easy it would be to walk and jump on other planets in the solar system, given the gravity and composition of each planet.

鈥淢y dad was in the Air Force and what he did there is now part of the Space Force,鈥� said student Parker Foley.

Huppert said it was a terrific program that helped have conversations about how lessons in class tie into real life, and connect with other lessons. For example, they recently went to the Billings Symphony to hear part of Gustav Holst鈥檚 鈥淧lanets.鈥� They also got to hear the orchestra perform the themes to 鈥淪tar Wars鈥� and 鈥�2001, a Space Odyessy.鈥�

Student Reed Shulund was able to tie what he learned from the program into what he鈥檚 seen recently on the news.

鈥淵ou need to know how to launch a rocket into space without blowing it up,鈥� Shulund said, 鈥渓ike Space X.鈥�

Foley said he better understood the recent Northern Lights after learning more about space and the Space Force too.

The students also said it gave them a chance to see there is more to a military career than combat.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not all 鈥楾op Gun鈥� and 鈥楳averick鈥�,鈥� Huppert said. 鈥淚t gives them a different opportunity to see that Armed Forces in a different way. One of the Space Force officers was from Missoula. And they need people with strong backgrounds in math and science, too.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Daily Montanan maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Darrell Ehrlick for questions: info@dailymontanan.com. Follow Daily Montanan on and .

Before her played a montage of the country鈥檚 history of Black Americans, of Emmitt Till鈥檚 murder, the Civil Rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr., all of which led to the first Black president, Barack Obama, being elected. 

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Now Harris stood on a historically Black campus as the first female vice-president, the first Black vice-president and the first Asian-American vice-president of the United States. 

The rain stopped for a moment as she began to speak words of praise for the graduates, who were born and raised to witness several historical events in their lifetimes.

鈥淵ou are a generation that grew up online and survived a pandemic,鈥� she said.

鈥淎nd the world that you graduated into is unsettled,鈥� she added.  

Although inequality has always existed, she said, history is repeating  itself as women and men once again face disenfranchisement through extreme wealth inequality, disparities in criminal justice, voting rights and other 鈥渇undamental principles we hoped were long settled.鈥� 

鈥淧rinciples like the freedom to vote and the rights of women to make decisions about their own bodies,鈥� she said.