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Subscribe to RSSAt the annual Education Nation summit, President Obama and Mitt Romney described their plans for creating a better-educated country. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.
NEW YORK-- Mitt Romney softened his tone toward teachers unions and highlighted his record as governor of Massachusetts at NBC News' Education Nation summit Tuesday in New York.
The Republican presidential nominee offered one of the most detailed glimpses of his education policy at the forum this morning, laying off his often brusque language toward unions and playing up parents' role in the educational success of their children.
At the Education Nation Summit NBC's Brian Williams spoke with GOP contender Mitt Romney, who shared his positions on teachers unions, strikes and compensation.
Teachers' unions, long the villains in Romney's public remarks on education, received somewhat gentler handling from the GOP nominee today, who said he "understood" the unions had to look out for their members, and that they had a right to strike over grievances -- but that parents also had the prerogative to look out for their kids' educations.
"The teachers' union has every right to represent their members in the way they think is best for their members, but we have a every right to in fact say, 'No, this is what we want to do, which is in the best interest of our children,'" Romney said, before offering his prescription for improving the quality of teaching. "I believe the best interest of our children is to recognize that teaching is a profession, like your profession, like my profession, like lawyers, like doctors, and that the very best are more highly compensated and rewarded and measured."
President Obama delivers remarks at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting in New York City.
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The former Massachusetts governor spoke and took questions on topics relating to education for 45 minutes here today as part of NBC News' Education Nation summit, and gave some of his most nuanced views yet on the issues at the heart of the effort to improve America's faltering public education system.
Romney also softened his tone, but did not change his argument, on the issue of class sizes, an issue on which he's battled teachers unions before, both in Massachusetts and on the campaign trail. Romney has called the fight for smaller class sizes a union-driven issue designed to spur the hiring of more teachers. He regularly cites a study authored by the consulting group McKinsey & Co. which shows class sizes, within a reasonable margin, are not a leading indicator of successful schools.
Reuters, Getty Images
In the final push in the 2012 presidential election, candidates Mitt Romney and Barack Obama make their last appeals to voters.
Today, Romney said his experience in Massachusetts taught him that class sizes "turned out to be a factor, but not a big one," to successful students, but continued to push for higher standards and pay for the best teachers, and for more parental involvement in education.
"The involvement of parents, particularly two parents, its an enormous advantage for the child," Romney said after retelling a story he heard from a teacher in Massachusetts who told him the way to tell if a student would succeed in school was whether or not their parents came to parent-teacher conferences with regularity.
Related: Education Nation – starkly different visions from Obama, Romney
Education has been one of the top issues for Romney outside 2012's dominant theme, the economy. The former Massachusetts governor often turns to the topic of education in speeches before minority audiences.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoke with NBC's Brian Williams on the importance of education, teachers compensation and early childhood education at Education Nation.
Romney held up several models for successful education reform; including his own tenure in Massachusetts, the reforms passed in Florida under Republican governor Jeb Bush, and the charter Harlem Children's Zone, some 100 blocks north of the site of today's event.
Romney even praised the current Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, mostly for his efforts to reward innovative schools and for opening options for more school choice, but stopped short of saying he would offer the Democrat a spot in his own cabinet.
"I'm not putting anybody on my cabinet right now, Brian," Romney laughed to moderator Brian Williams. "It's a little presumptuous of me, but just a little."
The Obama campaign wasn't laughing along.
“Mitt Romney’s education rhetoric today may have sounded nice, but it doesn’t square with his record or policies, which are informed by the mistaken belief that we can somehow improve our schools while cutting their budgets and laying off teachers," Obama campaign spokesperson Lis Smith said in a statement.
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I cannot wait until a moderator makes nails him to what he has said this past year. He doesn't answer to his own statements. I wonder what he will say next, I'm addicted to the idiocy of Mitt @!$%#in' Romney.
Sounds like Romney flip-flops based on who his audience is.
First he spits in your face and then he offers a monogrammed tissue to wipe off.
It's pretty obvious we have a great educational system, aided by strong teachers' unions.
Otherwise, how could we account for the fact current SAT scores are the lowest in 40 years?
Let's give credit where credit is due.
It's the parents and the culture, not the teachers.
Flip Flop Flip Flop......... Mitt hasn't a chance.
I wonder if Mitt Romney feels like he is on an African type safari in his own country?
Romney just keeps on spinning like a top.
This country does have major problems eith education but Romney in not the person to solve any of the problems. He cannot decide from day to today what stands for or what he is aganist.
How bad is it? Even the truth won't save him now.
It's interesting that almost every lib comment I can find on this post is busy attacking Romney instead of addressing the problem of our kids' educations.
Do the lil darlings mean nothing to you compared to your own misguided hatred of our next president?
Merely pointing out that ROmney can't be trusted to do the right thing in any area.
He can't be consistent for more than 3 days.
So what's your answer? Fewer teachers who make less money? The unrealistic dream that we're suddenly going to become a country without divorce of the need for extra jobs any time soon? Maybe, just maybe we should all live in the real world and try to get enough teachers so that they can help overcome the realistic constraints parents have.
Maybe if we cut some unneccessary administrators, consolidate some rural schools, do some on line class work for secondary students, hold teachers and students accountable, put teachers and admin on similar benefit plans the private sector has, allow charter schools for students at chronically underperforming schools, and stop thinking that every education concern can be fixed with more dollars thrown at teacher's unions, we'd have a head start.
I don't believe that ANYTHING ROMNEY says can be considered truth worthy. He can't be trusted as far as a baby can throw Robme's consultant Governor Christie and his lies about what he has done for NEW JERSEY.Where did the GOP come up with this CROP of candidates.
why because you believe obama is so truthful...please. this guy didnt even know why an embassy got attacked
The Libyans just ended a brutal civil war. Nearly every libyan was armed to the teeth for no other reason than protection. So how do you make a qiuck call as to who attacked the embassy based on the type of weapons used. You can't. It takes time to gather all the facts.
Education. Romney has given us all an education.
Despite what he says, leveling with people is not obsolete.
In Mr Romney's perfect world June and Ward Cleaver show up at school on parents night to discuss why the Beav is slipping in grades and is down to only a B average. This is after June made the family a nice roast beef dinner with mashed potatoes and a homemade apple pie. This guy is so out of touch I find it hard to believe he's on the same planet. Fifty percent of marriages end in divorce and the major cause of divorce is money problems, like spouse having to work two, three or even four jobs just to keep their heads above water. Would it be nice if every family had two loving parents with time to help the kids with their homework? Sure! Should we count on it in this economy or anywhere in the foreseeable future? Are you kidding? Romney says he's going to bring good paying jobs back to the U.S. but his party is pushing for more visas to bring high level workers in from other countries to save a buck. How is that going to help all the people recently let go by high tech companys? Where are the jobs for our children if this happens? To paraphrase their buddy Joe Wilson, Mr Romney - YOU LIE!
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obama's idea on education is this.. Poor minority students no matter what their grades are, should go to any school they want and onward to any college for free.....You and me.. we pay.
Yep that is how it should be. Tell me those poor minority kids have the same educational opportunities as Romney's kids without help and I will vote for Romney. A highly educated society is of great value to society.
He got the old etch a sketch out of the closet for this one. Mitt is really hopeless. He would be our only president using a Ouija board to decide policy.
The master flip flopper speaks again.
I will repeal Obamacare....
No wait... I created Obamacare...
No wait... Parts of Obamacare I support..
47% of American are freeloaders...
No wait - I am for 100% of Americans..
No wait - who am I talking to? Oh yeah - I love American car companies.
No wait - I want all car companies to go bankrupt.
Ahhh - this is so tough. I have to change my stance for every meeting. It's getting hard to keep this all straight. If only I had an opinion of my own....
Actions speak louder than words.
Romney/Ryan 2012 - A New Hope
Obama/Biden 2012 - keep moving forwards.
Voting will be like driving a car D to go forwards, R to go backwards.
Sorry for wasting the space but I can see that all the highly informed intelectuals have decided the future of the county. So I withdraw without comment.
Tofu Romney is at it again, he will take on the flavor of what is next to him to win votes, can't wait until he starts telling us Democrats are really good guys and it is just their politicians that are screwed up.
Wow, mitt really is a suck up. I guess he couldn't afford a backbone and now he needs to suck up to a union. Poor rich man.
Romney just won an honorary Emmy. He was given the prize as Actor who changes roles most often depending on the audience.
CBO Director Demolishes GOP's Stimulus Myth
byJon PerrFollow
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For months, Mitt Romney and his Republican allies have been falsely claiming that President Obama "made the economy worse." This week, Romney preposterously declared Obama "knowingly slowed down our recovery." And today in Missouri, the Republican nominee doubled-down, charging that the President "slowed the recovery and harmed our economy," a result Romney insisted constituted "a moral failure of tragic proportions."
As it turns out, Thursday would have been a good day for Mitt Romney to stop sniffing glue. Because just 24 hours earlier, the director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Officeblew the Republican slander out of the water.
As the Washington Post reported, the House Budget Committee heard testimony from CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf to answer simple question: did the $787 billion Obama stimulus work? Unfortunately for Republican propagandists, Elmendorf clearly refuted Mitt Romney's claim that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was "the largest one-time careless expenditure of government money in American history."
Not content with that response, Kansas Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp tried again. "Where did Washington mess up?" Huelskamp demanded. "Because you're saying most economists think it should've worked. It didn't." As the Post's Lori Montgomery detailed, Elmendorf drove home the point:
Elmendorf's agency released its latest assessment of the stimulus just last week. And as the table below shows, at its peak in 2010 the ARRA added up to 3.3 million jobs, cut unemployment by as much as 1.8 percent and boosted GDP by up to 4.1 percent. (It's also worth noting that the CBO once again confirmed that aid to the states and purchases by the federal government delivers the biggest bang for the buck, while upper income tax cuts provide the least.)
Very telling Rick! I think i'm going to frame your post for future reference
Thanks Rick, need to check it out for myself
The ONE thing I can totally agree with Romney on: The involvement of parents, and as stated by the teacher he was referencing, an indicator of success is when at least one parent will show up for things a parent - teacher conference. Want to bet on the number of parents who send their kids to school solely to get free breakfasts and lunches, actually showing up to a meeting about how to improve their kid's chances for acedemic success? Probably ZERO.
LULZY LULZ to the fudgy the whale parent interviewed during the strike in Chicago - "Where my kid gonna go get sumthin' to eat?" IDK porkie - sell off your kid's 360, his nikes, 30 dollar hot topic lid, your flat screen, and get rid of your 80 dollar per month iphone, cable tv, and quit smoking. Buy your kid some food, and actually aid in your kid's acedemic success.
I couldn't help but lol at your comment! Really, though, poverty isn't nearly as bad as it's made out to be -- I've been under the poverty level for the majority of my life -- poverty here in America is living like royalty compared to poverty in many other nations. Here poverty has smart phones, flat-screen tv's, and expensive rims. Often, co-habitating is enough to make ends meet and get by. We take care of our poor, which I personally appreciate. There really is a safety net, unless you fall into the mentally ill homeless group. Those are the poor that I'm worried about.
So now Robme and Lyin' are pro-union???
Did someone just tell them that union members actually vote???
Did a union worker show Ann how to open an airplane window??
Did a union worker teach "Rafalka" how to Tango??
I need a union referee's playbook to keep his flip-flops straight.
We have formed the debate here a week in advance to the actual words exchanged between the two men. Do we continue to plunge this Nation deeper into national socialism-nationalization of industries i.e. banking, automotive, energy, healthcare, etc. or do we return to the Common Sense of Thomas Paine and our Founders? Can a nation of dependents, back-grabbers, and victims restore America's place in the world? Can we stand another four years of apologizing for being America? This is the most pivotal election of our lifetimes and perhaps as great as the election of 1860!
Are we a failed experiment in governance or just at a very low point in our history as a people? Will we allow the cancerous growth of Federal government to kill the body politic and the American Spirit? Will the Land of Opportunity be no longer because we no longer have the will to be self-determinate?
Stop. THink. Vote R&R this Nov. for your Country.
hot - the sky is falling the sky is falling....not. Just a lot of bunk and scare from people like you. This country is doing fine and will do better when the middle class starts to prosper and that will not happen under R&R.
Vote Obama/Biden to move forward and be what we should be.