Those watching Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s self-immolation during the vice- presidential debate noted he, as often as possible, patted himself on the back for his accomplishments in turning Minnesota into a socialist wonderland. By his telling, Minnesota is the very model of socialist governance, a virtual paradise of woke virtue and the model—never mind the glory of Gavin Newsom’s California—for the future People’s Republic of America.

Graphic: X screenshot

That didn’t work out so well for him, nor has it worked out well for Minnesota, which despite Walz’s self-praise, is in real trouble, particularly its schools:

In late 2019, Breitbart News reported extensively on Worthington, Minnesota. With fewer than 14,000 residents, the town’s taxpayers were forced to hike taxes to the sum of tens of millions to expand the school district because of a rapid increase in migrant children enrolling.

Hey, it’s only other people’s money, but as Margaret Thatcher sagely noted, that’s the trouble with socialism: you always run out of other people’s money.

During a gubernatorial debate in October 2022, Walz bragged about the mass immigration that has inundated Worthington for decades now — spinning it as a positive thing that several dozen languages are now spoken in the town’s schools.

“We are a state of immigrants that values that. We have more refugees per capita than any other state. That’s not just morally a good thing — it’s our economic and cultural future,” Walz said:

This beautiful diversity we see out in Worthington when I’m there, you see 50 languages spoken in the school and you see every storefront filled with different types of foods, different types of businesses that are happening. Minnesota needs to continue to do that. The Office of Governor can set the tone on that. [Emphasis added]

Yes, the Office of the governor has certainly “set the tone on that,” and illegals now comprise about 30% of Worthington’s population. But surely all Minnesota students are ranking at the very top of national academic achievement? We have Tim Walz’s word on that, don’t we?  Not so much:

From 2019 to 2022, the percentage of fourth graders in the state who are not proficient in reading has increased from 62 percent to almost 70 percent. Likewise, eighth graders not proficient in math increased from 56 percent in 2019 to nearly 70 percent in 2022.

Perhaps most alarming, almost a third of all students in the state were deemed “chronically absent” in the 2021-2022 school year, meaning they missed 10 percent or more school days.

Imagine trying to teach kids who can’t speak English, kids whose culture is as foreign to you as American culture is to them. They wear American clothing and have seen American movies and TV shows, so they have a superficial understanding of American culture as filtered through Hollywood, but below the surface, they lack the touchstones that allow American kids to connect the intellectual dots.

Having a few kids in your class that speak only Spanish is bad enough. Even if you’re fluent in Spanish, you have two classes to teach but no additional time. Everything must be presented in two languages, cutting in half teaching time for English and Spanish speakers. 

If you don’t speak Spanish, what do you do? What can you do? Enlist bilingual kids as interpreters? That’s unethical, and particularly in the lower grades, how can you know they’re accurately interpreting? They’re inevitably going to miss nuances and can’t translate new, unfamiliar words, and you’ve no way to know they truly understand anything you’re trying to teach.  While they’re interpreting, they’re not leaning what they should.

I don’t have to imagine that. I lived it teaching high school English in a mid-sized Texas high school. The horror of it was many of those kids were intelligent, but thrown into the deep end of the pool, they inevitably sank, and were passed on from grade to grade, eventually graduating without being able to read and truly comprehend English, without the common cultural background necessary to become Americans. They were denied history, the stories—the literature--that define and inspire us, that make us American. We did them no favors, and teachers were frustrated and dispirited. Professional teachers live to see their students grow and become intelligent, functional citizens, people who contribute rather than consume. Denied that ability, they, and America, suffer.

People like Tim Walz live in their own, manufactured, reality. The real world intrudes, but their reality can’t possibly be wrong, so they labor to bend it to their delusions. So, 50- languages spoken in schools are “beautiful diversity,” a beauty that produces 70% of fourth graders who can’t read? A model for America?  Not so much.

This, like so much else, is on the ballot in November.

Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.