As former teacher Tim Walz takes center stage, will education, too?

Voters say they want lower grocery prices and a more affordable cost of living. Where do schools fall on their wish list? It depends on who you ask.

For nearly three-quarters of Americans, the economy ranks as their No. 1 issue heading into this year’s presidential election. But 79% of Black voters say improving education should be a top priority for policymakers – higher than any other issue, according to a Pew Research Center report.

The presidential candidates haven’t given education top billing in campaign speeches – at least, not yet – but it’s lurking around the edges in nationwide debates about vouchers, book banning, civil rights, and the potential conservative agenda of Project 2025. On top of that, Vice President Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former teacher and the headliner at the Democratic National Convention tonight, as her running mate. 

All of that “raises the specter” of education in this election cycle, says Kathryn E. Wiley, an assistant professor of education at Howard University. “It’s an in-the-wings issue,” she says.

How is education being discussed in the 2024 presidential race?

The post-pandemic years in public education have been defined by academic concerns such as high absenteeism rates and students’ lackluster reading and math skills. Cultural issues, however, have in some ways overshadowed those challenges as clashes over student reading material, history lessons, biblical teachings, and LGBTQ+ rights have erupted across the country.

Now, that rhetoric is spilling over into presidential campaigns. Conservatives, including those from former President Donald Trump’s camp, have slammed a Minnesota law signed by Mr. Walz, arguing that it promotes offering menstrual products in boys’ restrooms. The law does not denote gender, instead calling for the availability of free supplies in restrooms used by fourth through 12th grade students. Still, a #TamponTim hashtag has gained steam on social media.

What does that mean for education policy on the federal stage? Perhaps not much, according to Jonathan Becker, associate professor of educational leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University, who teaches a course on politics and education. 

He doesn’t expect most of the hot-button education issues to become serious election factors. Take book bans, for instance.

“They may use it kind of rhetorically as part of a campaign, but, ultimately, there’s not really much that can be done at the federal government level around those things,” Dr. Becker says.

Still, they’re certainly weighing on the minds of voters – even if not a driving force like pocketbook issues, immigration, and reproductive rights. 

“I think that if Trump gets in, we lose our education freedoms to teach great books and great literature,” says Sharon Cantwell, a middle school teacher in New York who has primarily voted for Republicans. She and her husband – in Las Vegas to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary – spontaneously decided to attend a recent Harris-Walz rally in the swing state.

Education is widely considered a state and local issue, especially from a money standpoint. Federal funding for K-12 education hovers around 10%, largely to help schools serve students with disabilities or those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

But the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 calls for the elimination of the federal Department of Education, thrusting school-related issues into the election spotlight. Mr. Trump has tried to distance himself from the conservative blueprint despite many former aides and allies crafting it. (Mr. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has written a foreword for a forthcoming book by a leader of Project 2025, called “Dawn’s Early Light: Taking Back Washington To Save America.”)

And yet, the former president doubled down on abolishing the Education Department when Elon Musk interviewed him on an X livestream last week. 

Dr. Wiley at Howard hopes the fate of the Education Department garners more attention, particularly to help explain its function to voters.

“If we lost the Department of Education, that would be terrible,” she says. “It’s a significant way that we can enforce and monitor civil rights in education and provide limited funding and support for students.”

Eliminating the Education Department may be a catchy campaign slogan, but doing so would be more complicated. A scholar from the conservative American Enterprise Institute doesn’t anticipate it becoming a reality, even if Mr. Trump inhabits the Oval Office again. 

“Somebody will introduce a bill to abolish it, and it will go nowhere because you’re not going to find 60 votes for it in any projectable constellation of the political dynamic,” says Max Eden, a senior fellow at AEI.

Issues to watch: child care and student loan debt 

It may be that issues related to education, such as child care and student loan debt, will get bigger play this election cycle. That’s because candidates will likely try to woo working-class voters, says David Damore, a political science professor and executive director of The Lincy Institute and Brookings Mountain West at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Evidence of that occurred at the recent Harris-Walz rally in Las Vegas. The campaign selected local teacher Tillie Torres to introduce the candidates inside a nearly packed college arena. 

In doing so, Ms. Torres plugged the student loan forgiveness she received through the Biden administration, calling it her ticket to “financial freedom” after years racking up interest that eventually surpassed the initial loan amount.

Democrats’ changes to the student loan system could amount to a “sea change in the way that colleges are financed,” Mr. Eden says, which is why he would like to hear more from the Trump campaign about the issue. President Joe Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan, which lowers repayments based on income and offers some outright forgiveness, has been halted by a federal court.

“Is there an alternative proposition that Trump or the Republicans might offer?” he says. “What will happen with FAFSA [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] over the next year?”

Teachers energized by former educator Walz

Still, Ms. Torres’ message appeared targeted to a considerable voting bloc – her more than 3 million peers teaching in public schools. The mere presence of former educator Mr. Walz on the ballot has energized this key constituency.

Cory Hulsizer, a teacher in Pennsylvania’s Camp Hill School District, welcomes Mr. Walz’s inclusion on the ballot given the “framework” his years as an educator provided. “It is understanding truly the things that kids need to be successful and thrive – and understanding that not on kind of just like a surface level, but seeing that day to day,” says Mr. Hulsizer, who teaches seventh-grade world history and Advanced Placement Government and Politics classes. He cited Governor Walz’s signing a law providing free breakfast and lunch in schools as one example.

Jona Jones, a reading specialist at a Las Vegas elementary school, says Mr. Walz’s selection as the nation’s next potential vice president was “huge.”

“There is an understanding there of where we have been in education and where the rest of the world is as far as education is concerned,” says Ms. Jones, who attended the rally with her father, a retired teacher.

Not everyone buys the notion that Mr. Walz’s inclusion will radically change voters’ minds or the trajectory of public education. That includes the Clark County Education Association, a local teachers union for the Las Vegas-area school district.

“We’re not saying [Mr. Walz is] bad on education,” says John Vellardita, executive director of CCEA. “… But we don’t fall for that schtick that ‘Oh great, we’ve got one of ours up there.’ He’s a career politician.”

The better barometer, he believes, is looking at what the Biden administration has done at the federal level and what Trump’s team, including former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, did during his presidency. (The Clark County Education Association plans to make an endorsement in the presidential race but has not done so yet. The two largest national teacher unions – the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers – endorsed Ms. Harris for president in July.)

Rebecca Dirks Garcia, a registered nonpartisan and single mother of three teenagers in suburban Las Vegas, will be paying close attention to what the presidential contenders say about education. The economy ranks high on her concern list, she says, with education inextricably linked and close behind.

“If kids don’t get educated, that means we have adults who aren’t educated,” says Ms. Dirks Garcia, who runs a Facebook group for parents of Clark County School District students. “And then as a society we bear that burden.”