Romney Tells Latinos Education Is ‘Civil Rights Issue Of Our Era,’ Promises Donors Massive Education Cuts

THINK PROGRESS

In a speech today to The Latino Coalition, a pro-business group led by President George W. Bush’s Small Business Administrator, Mitt Romney said the nation’s public education is in “crisis.” But while he publicly claimed that improving education for minority children is the “civil-rights issue of our era,” his recent closed-door remarks to donors suggest that his real plan for education is massive cuts.

Romney said today:

Our public education system is supposed to ensure that every child gets a strong start in life. Yet, one in four students fails to attain a high school degree. And in our major cities, half of our kids won’t graduate. Imagine that. Imagine if your enterprise had a 25% to 50% failure rate in meeting its primary goal. You would consider that a crisis. You would make changes, and fast. Because if you didn’t, you’d go out of business. [...]
Here we are in the most prosperous nation, but millions of kids are getting a third-world education. And, America’s minority children suffer the most. This is the civil-rights issue of our era. It’s the great challenge of our time.

Watch the video

Last month, however, the Wall Street Journal reported that Romney told donors at a private fundraising event that he would pay for his proposed 20 percent income tax cut by making massive cuts to education spending. Romney promised to consolidate the Department of Education with another agency or to make it “a heck of a lot smaller.” During Wednesday’s speech, Romney referenced his plan to block grant education funding, but did not specify how he would reduce the education budget.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll of Latino voters released today shows Romney losing to Obama, 61 percent to 27 percent.