Rick Santorum suggests opposition to public schooling

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."

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.

[scoobrs]

Thomas Jefferson wrote August 13th 1786 to George Wythe: "I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness...Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils [tyranny, oppression, etc.] and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."

[ydd2012]

Thats right within the Republican agenda. Keep'em bare foot and pregnant. And just like your BFF Forest, it's up to women to keep their legs closed to avoid getting pregnant. Right Rick? Back to the Fifty's again.

[PeggyMarieHamilton]

Public education went wrong went it threw out daily prayer and let kids dance in sexually suggestive ways and let girls dress immorally. Some schools even let pregnant girls parade their immorality and have day care center for their children. Any parent is better equipped to educate their children than those teachers that the unions force upon us and aren't allowed to teach morals and the Bible. Kids come out dumber each day than when they go in.

[jclineb]

There is no mandate for government run schools Peggy. If you want to home school your kids do it. If you can't afford to then quit complaining and make due. By the way your concept of immorality is just that, your own. Not all parents would agree and believe it or not, historically women have always bore children at a young age. Having a care center so that women do not have to forgo an education due a youthful mistake is progress... If you feel so strongly about sheltering your children I suggest you look into becoming amish, the world is what it is and sticking your kids heads in the sand wont change that, it will simply leave them unready for what awaits.

[PourpaixPourpaix]

Well, I guess I see Santorum's point. Look, there's only three kinds of folks Santorum needs in this country. First, it's going to take a lot of soldiers to make the world into what Santorum wants. Lot of folks need to die before the planet cooperates with his vision, and soldiers just need boot camp training. Public schools are a waste ... any trained monkey can stand in front of a bullet. Second, Santorum needs someone to make more soldiers, i.e., mothers. Don't need a public education to bang your head against the headboard and wipe snot. Third, we need people to make weapons, since that's one job we can't safely farm out to the Chinese. But there's plenty of rich folks who can afford private schools. Engineering needs fulfilled. Really old soldiers, like the 35+ crowd, can be put to work in factories making bombs. If any trained monkey can polish shells, so can our vets. Let the vets enjoy a few years of retirement in a marginal manual labor job. And when they can't work any more, give their family a tax break on the suicide party. Because we don't need a bunch of old people using up precious resources. So, he's right. Why would we need public schools?

[democracy8]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/16/opinion/kristof-the-new-haven-experiment.html?_r=1&src=tp&smid=fb-share

[Zann-Zel]

by ill-gor February 16, 2012 12:19 PM EST
Hi Zellie,
I'm pleased you got a belly chuckle. Laughing is good medicine for any side in these times !
--------------
Yes it is! As long as we can remember to laugh at both sides, we might agree on something once in a while! : )

[myth1958]

"..the Penn Hills school district ended up shelling out $38,000 per year for the Santorum children". What a hypocrite. He hates government intrusion in schools, yet forces some school district to pay enormous fees so his privileged children can go wherever he wishes. This candidate is such a Neanderthal on birth control, gay rights, women's rights and now schools that it is no wonder the voters in PA were glad to be rid of him. Please, Republican primary voters, give Santorum the nod. He would be so much fun to take apart in the general election.

[nirak2-2009]

We are aware Sanitorium what kind of schooling you had.

[Jim1900]

We might as well get around to closing the public libraries too. They are another of Ben Franklin's inventions (along with the Post Office) that are run by government.

Somehow the right-wingers only like the Defense Department. And they have no idea what to do with that.

[AOCGUY]

Jim the right has been ticked off since that darn lefty Democrat back in 1947 changed it from War to Defense Department.

[Zann-Zel]

WHAT?????????????????????
Close up the libraries? How about we start burning all the books that aren't filled with right wing ******** too?

[tonyatq]

I pay $8000 a year for my children to go to private school, I wonder can I have the district reinburst me.

[chimike9607]

That 8K doesn't go just for schools, dude. It goes for the police dept and fire dept that protect your little Lord Fauntleroys, and for the infrastructure that maintains that private school. No refund for you.