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Posted on 02/16/2012 6:55:15 PM PST by Tailgunner Joe
Campaigning in Idaho on Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum suggested that he is opposed to a public school system overseen by the government.
"We didn't have government-run schools for a long time in this country, for the majority of the time in this country," he said. "We had private education. We had local education. Parents actually controlled the education of their children. What a great idea that is."
Santorum's campaign did not respond to multiple requests for an explanation of whether he was calling for an end to public schooling as it now exists. But the former Pennsylvania senator has previously made his antagonism known. Campaigning in March, Santorum took a shot at public schools.
"Just call them what they are," he said. "Public schools? That's a nice way of putting it. These are government-run schools."
Santorum makes a point of his support for home schooling. All of his children have been home schooled, and he has even suggested he would home school in the White House, a situation that he said "would certainly be a shock to the establishment."
The Hill newspaper mined Santorum's 2005 book It Takes a Family for his views on schooling. In that book, Santorum called "mass education" an "aberration."
"Never before and never again after their years of mass education will any person live and work in such a radically narrow, age-segregated environment," wrote Santorum. "It's amazing that so many kids turn out to be fairly normal, considering the weird socialization they get in public schools."
He added: "In a home school, by contrast, children interact in a rich and complex way with adults and children of other ages all the time. In general, they are better-adjusted, more at ease with adults, more capable of conversation, more able to notice when a younger child needs help or comfort, and in general a lot better socialized than their mass-schooled peers."
Santorum has not always home schooled his children, however. When Santorum was serving in the Senate, he decided to effectively move his family to Virginia - a situation that would cause political problems for the then-Pennsylvania senator.
Santorum did not enroll his kids in local Pennsylvania schools, and he did not home school them: Instead, he enrolled five of them in the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School. The "cyber" school is considered a public school, as Mother Jones notes, where students have to meet state requirements. It also provides free computers and other perks, and the Penn Hills school district ended up shelling out $38,000 per year for the Santorum children.
Santorum reportedly ended up withdrawing his children from the school. He did not repay the district, though the state ultimately paid the district $55,000 to cover the tuition fees.
The concept is VERY appealing. Break up the power of the NEA
What CBS News meant to say was Santorum is for locally run public schools.
Wow. Every once in a while, I find myself totally agreeing with Rick Santorum.
exactly
You can expect the MSM to keep lying
Rick is right.
Santorum essentially did what any other citizen could have done. None the less, the people who write these articles try to word them in such a manner as to imply that Santorum gamed the system and skated on a big bill he should have paid. That isn’t true.
Any kid that is enrolled in those schools gets what Santorum’s kids did.
It may be that the homeschooling community has a candidate to rally around and support.
Media is warming up to “Palin” Santorum. They are only at about 1% strength right now. GOP’ers can’t say ANYTHING of substance at all without it being mischaracterized. Of course, Obama can say ANYTHING, knowing the media has his back. It is sad how little the “conservative media” has progressed in the past 4 years.
Homeschool Ping.
I agree. Can’t stand him. Don’t think he’ll sell in the general. I think he’s totally humorless and off putting.
But he’s damned right on this issue, right on the money.
I can understand how you might think he can’t win the general...it’s the “can’t stand him” part that seems disproportionate. He isn’t my first or second choice, but I can “stand him” ;-) In fact, I can stand him a whole lot better than mittens.
I’m thinking that these clowns in the media and in both parties are working together. Like both supporting the same types of people.
Big example to make you think - -
Hey you know Romney actually lost in Maine and Santorum is on a roll as soon as the recount is over. What a scam - and the Republicans in Maine (RINOs) in charge seemed to have neglected all of the areas where Paul won, meaning Paul won Main, not the flop Romney who is on a losing streak losing the last 4. 3 to Santorum and one to Paul. Look how disgustingly they tried to hide it. Normally I do not like MSNBC but take a look at the video ...something is rotten in Maine big time. America is in trouble folks they are pushing through Romney no matter what. it is giving me the feel that we are some dictatorship of the bankers and the Federal reserve more and more - here is Maddow telling what is up in Main alone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pngwcQQW5bA&feature=player_embedded
Well, the first step would be simple enough. Close down the Department of Education. Completely. And rescind all of the laws connected with it.
I’ve listened to him sub for Bill Bennett on Morning in America.
If you can, find the morning that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Santorum was anything but humorless. The Press just portrays him the way they want you to see him.
I can understand your sentiments, but in all honesty, he grates on my last nerve. Certain things bother different people, and nothing bothers me as much as self righteousness and hyprocrisy, and I see both all over RS. Another thing that bugs me is mediocre talent attempting to do big time things, and RS has gotten away with that due to some very fortunate turns in the events surrounding Mitt and Newt. Not only that, but he is totally humorless and most totally humorless folks I've known are frankly not that bright.
But as I said, he is totally right on this particular subject and I always put ideas ahead of personality.
The Maine story is astonishing. RP almost certainly won, and they simply declared Mittens the winner to keep his campaign alive.
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