DES MOINES, Iowa — Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is holding town halls in Republican districts and kicked off the trip in Des Moines.

More than 1,500 people RSVP’d for the townhall held at Roosevelt High School. Veterans Affairs members, farmers, business owners, teachers, and students were all given the opportunity to ask Governor Walz questions.

As Veterans Affairs faces more than 80,000 cuts a VA worker asked Governor Walz what will happen when the VA system fails and the danger it poses.

“Looking at a facility, at Iowa City that’s 300 jobs out of the 2,550 employees that work there,” Patrick Kearns, an Iowa City VA Nurse. “We cannot survive that, and I think that’s the goal of the secretary of veterans affairs and Elon Musk and the president cause then they can point to the system and say look it’s hopelessly broke.”

A veteran himself, who served as a ranking member on the house of veterans affairs committee, Walz spoke on the danger of letting a top healthcare system fail.

“If you ask them about the VA, they don’t connect that a large number of those 80,000 are veterans themselves, but they also don’t connect this part. The VA is the best health care system in the country. Here’s the thing, the VA trains over 80% of the physicians that serve in this country, the VA’s research arm, The VA’s ability goes far beyond.”

On Monday the USDA announced a $1 billion cut in funding for local schools and food banks. A local farmer and former school nutritionist questioned the danger of cutting these programs.

“When I told my eight-year-old daughter that they would no longer be serving Country View yogurt at her small rural school she was devastated and decided she wanted to get all of her friends to write letters to Secretary Rawlins to tell her know how much local foods mean to them,” said Ellen Walsh-Rossman from Harlan.

Walz said as a teacher and a parent he knows the benefit of kids who have full bellies and knows these programs also support local farmers and businesses.

“Even if you don’t have a conscience or morality about a child eating, we know that the outcomes of a child or a family that is food secure are so much better. And over the lifetime of that child, you will save so much money, even if it’s not about the improvement,” Walz said. “In Minnesota every child gets free breakfast, free lunch, and guess what happened to absentee rates, they went down, and student achievement went up.”

As President Trump continues efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, a Roosevelt High School student looking to be an attorney asked for solutions as she prepares for college.

“Higher education is a must for me and my future, like my peers, I am relying on federal aid to pay for a part of my college costs,” said Promise Bradford, Roosevelt senior. “If President Trump agenda succeeds, am I still able to get a Pell grant to cover the cost of my college.”

Governor Walz says the country needs to think about higher education not as an expense but as an opportunity.

“Education is not a for-profit endeavor and it shouldn’t be. It’s an investment in community. It’s an investment in society. So in Minnesota, we passed something called the Northstar Promise for every family making $80,000 or less. And then on a sliding scale above that, if you make 80,000 or less, you go free to any institution in Minnesota to be able to go, and that opens it up.”

Governor Tim Walz intends to hold townhalls in Wisconsin, Ohio, Nebraska, and Minnesota.