BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN Mitt Romney strayed from his usual campaign theme about the economy Wednesday to hit President Obama on education. KCRA has an excerpt of the speech, to a crowd of Hispanic business owners at the US Chamber of Commerce Wednesday. ROMNEY: "Here we are in the most prosperous nation on earth, but millions of our kids are getting a third-world education, and America's minority children suffer the most." He told the crowd â€" that's the "civil rights issue of our time." And to fix it â€" he's going back through the war chest â€" with a voucher-style system the AP's Steve Peoples expects to resurrect the debate over school choice. It would allow low-income and disabled students to choose schools. Federal aid would go with that student to his or her chosen school. In the speech Romney also proposed mandating "report cards" to mark school progress â€" calling the current federal evaluation system "cryptic." The voucher idea isn't new coming from a conservative â! €" Republicans in Congress have introduced similar bills. Romney's camp says his plan would not require any additional federal spending on education. Fox's Charles Payne says he loves the idea â€" saying vouchers foster competition among schools. PAYNE: "Competition is the key. ... The interest of school linked to the student. How about that? Rather than linked to the unions, rather than a link to the teachers, how about we get rid of bad teachers, bring if good teachers and we do not paint them all with the same ...
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