RICK SANTORUM SUGGESTS OPPOSITION TO PUBLIC EDUCATION: Some scary thinking + a scary picture!
BY BRIAN MONTOPOLI | CBS NEWS | HTTP://BIT.LY/WRWHDW
(Credit: Stephen Brashear/Getty Images)
Updated 12:47 p.m. Thursday
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."