Gov. Tim Walz Visits Bemidji High School

When choosing stops for his statewide education tour, Bemidji High School seemed like an obvious choice for Governor Tim Walz. He had heard about some of the great programs that were going on at the school and wanted to see it for himself.

“Minnesota’s greatest strength is, of course, our people and the education of our people, and Bemidji High School does something really unique with it’s academies, its learning academies, and we wanted to make sure we were here to kind of highlight that,” says Walz.

The governor had a busy afternoon at BHS. He went into classrooms, held a group forum, and even spoke with a handful of students and staff one-on-one.

“For him to be able to witness the great things that we do here in Bemidji Area Schools was a nice opportunity for us to help elevate our message and help support him in his message as he supports education across the state,” says Bemidji Schools superintendent Tim Lutz.

Students brought up many topics to the Governor including rural broadband, support for after school programs, suicide rates, abortion, school shootings, and the Line 3 pipeline. For students, having the time to talk to the governor was a very special opportunity.

“All of his answers were really just awesome to hear. Hearing someone from that high of a level talking to students like us is something that I’m sure at least affected a couple of the students,” says Xavier Michael Young, a senior at Bemidji High School.

With so many topics addressed during the visit, Walz says he’s leaving BHS not only impressed the programs, but with the students as well.

“My feedback from them was they want us to trust them. They want us to invest in them an they want to be given opportunities. I think what I heard here is, ‘don’t allow these differences of where you live in Minnesota to impact our education,’” says Walz.

Walz and his staff says they plan to make future trips to the area to discuss other concerns people may have.