Minneapolis “I am labor,” Gov. Tim Walz declared on the campaign trail in 2018. “I stand with labor, and as governor, I will keep Minnesota a labor state.” True to his pledge, the budget Walz released in the opening days of the 2021 Legislature reflected the priorities of the state’s main teachers union, Education Minnesota. Pandemic recession notwithstanding, Walz called for $745 million in new K-12 spending and vowed to tie education funding to inflation, a move the union has sought for years. Right away, GOP lawmakers jabbed back, calling for across-the-board cuts instead. “The schools made the decision not to be in the classroom when science showed they could be,” said Republican Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, of East Gull Lake. “They chose — the teachers union and the governor — not to have the kids in the classroom … and now they’re asking us to bail them out for that.”