So you're a high school teacher from Mankato, Minn., who shows up for a 2004 campaign rally for President Bush. You've got two kids from the high school in tow, good students who already have become politically active, when the staff at the door suddenly pulls you and the boys aside.

Seems the kids have been flagged by local organizers. They've been active in local Democratic politics—hence, "a threat to the security of the president." You start to object as the students are turned away. The security staff tells you to shut up, file in and "behave yourself" at the rally.

What's your next move? If you're Tim Walz, a member of the AFT's Minnesota affiliate, you run for Congress two years later and win.

The rally incident "was something of an epiphany" says Walz, who went to work that fall organizing a successful Veterans for John Kerry campaign in southern Minnesota. He bristled at the current political landscape, the stranglehold on access that was creeping through government. "I was becoming frustrated about everything that was happening, from the war in Iraq to the economy, and this forced me to become public about it."

Walz showed organizing ability in the 2004 election and was approached about a run for Congress by the state Democratic Party. It would be tough to find a candidate with more on-the-ground experience in so may key issue areas: The career public school teacher, Walz also was a command sergeant major in the Army National Guard and served in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom. It was just the type of background that Minnesotans were looking for--a leader who would shelve the rubber stamp and bring his personal experience and insights to bear on such issues as the war in Iraq and the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act.

And that's just what Walz plans to do.

After defeating a six-term incumbent in Minnesota's first congressional district, Walz is eager to get to work. He'll be asking the hard questions about U.S. involvement Iraq, pressing for a strategy that reflects not only his own military experience but also his concern as a teacher with several former students serving in the conflict. And he dismisses the Education Department's suggestion Congress should tinker at the margins when it comes to reauthorization of NCLB.

The White House should be prepared to talk fundamentals when it comes to NCLB, Walz says. "Accountability and high expectations are concepts that teachers have always embraced, but research base must be brought to bear" when it comes to implementing these concepts, he explains. "NCLB has a very difficult time measuring growth," and a lot of the problem stems from a mismatch among states when it comes to standards-based reform. Thousands of schools in Minnesota will soon be deemed failing simply by virtue of the state's early involvement in standards-based reform and setting high expectations for students.

Other states with long histories in standards-based reform report similar problems with AYP, he says. From a teacher's perspective, "It's all stick and no carrot—and it's grossly underfunded." In an environment when government wants to hold public school teachers accountable, "its time for public school teachers to hold Congress accountable as well," he says.

That also means taking the pressure off schools by honoring Congress' broken promise to fully fund the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. "Get IDEA right and I think you'll see just as much growth [as you will through NCLB] and a lot of financial pressure taken off" states and districts.

Walz is one of two AFT members who are newly elected to Congress; the other is Iowa's Dave Loebsack, a longtime member of the Cedar Rapids Teachers Federation. Other "AFT family" newly elected to Congress include Democrats Betty Sutton in Ohio, an AFT attorney who filled the seat vacated by Senator-elect Sherrod Brown, and Harry Mitchell of Arizona, the husband of an AFT member, and Republican Dean Heller of Nevada, whose mother is a member of the AFT-affiliated Nevada Classified School Employees Association. They join current AFTers now serving in the House: Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Mike Honda (D-Calif.), Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) and AFT attorney Sam Farr (D-Calif.). [Mike Rose/Photo by James Bowey, Winona Daily News]

November 28, 2006