Manchester, New Hampshire (CNN) - Rick Santorum called President Barack Obama's education goals an agenda of "hubris" on Saturday, saying he is "outraged" that the president thinks "every child in America should go to college."
"The hubris of this president to think that he knows what's best for you [...] This is the kind of snobbery that we see from those that think they know how to run our lives," the former Pennsylvania senator said in a forum at St. Anselm's New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
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Obama has repeatedly said he wants the United States to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020. Earlier this year, while announcing plans to reform "No Child Left Behind," Obama also said he intends for every student to graduate "career and college ready."
But Santorum, whose children's education includes home-schooling, argued that not everyone is suited for a college education.
"I have seven kids. Maybe they'll all go to college. But if one of my kids wants to go and be an auto mechanic, good for him, that's a good paying job, using your hands, using your mind," he said.
Santorum calls for the federal government to have a "very limited" role in education, advocating for "flexible and personalized approaches to education for each child to best maximize their potential."
"We are leaving so many children behind because they're not ready to go to college - they don't want to go to college, they don't need to go to college," Santorum said Saturday.
CNN's Ashley Killough and Gregory Wallace contributed to this report.
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Santorum's right. Helping every child to reach their highest educational potential might improve their lives and benefit the country as a whole, but it would probably lead to the end of the regressive politics of the extreme right, including the evangelicals, tea partiers, gun nuts and libertarian fantasies..
What a maroon! Not all parents know what educational choices are best for their children, and as such fail to help or allow them to reach their potential. If this idiot has his way, we'll be back in the stone age in record time, and the rest of the republican party will follow, cheering!
Yeah right Santorum, and your statement is just one of MANY reasons you will NEVER be elected to anything ever again. You are really, really out of touch.
Will Mr. Romney set up some sort of home-school program for his child who wants to be an auto mechanic? Last time I checked, mechanics need to take post-high school training.
By the way rick, you still need to be schooled for that too.
I wonder if Mr. Santorium has ever heard the phrase "aim for the stars." Why can't we encourage the kids to aim for college? These Republicans are so strange.....I thought they want America to be the best, not if President Obama says it. So sad!!
someone should request his birth certificate? put a towel on this guys head and could pass as a Islamic extremist....
And he thinks he knows how to run our lives??? He wants to run our most "private" part of our lives. Parents should be able to decide how many chuldren they want. Are all Reps. against education?? There are Jr. colleges and technical colleges-not just 4 yr. colleges. I believe our president just wants all children to have access to which of these schools they are capable of completing in order to have the best life possible.
OBAMA/BIDEN 2012
Pouting again?
Home- schooling, his wife must be tired by now. I doubt his kids are college material. He dumps all the work on his wife. The world is a lot bigger than your home Rick. Rick give your wife a break and you stay home instead of running around the country chasing a pipe dream. Your comments may work for some in the primary but it will not during a general election.
The world needs ditch diggers too. Grab a shovel, Rick.
so when Obama says good morning, he's insisting we have a good morning... how dare he!
So Obama thinks that every child 'should' have the opportunity available to them to realize their full
potential, but Santorum thinks that this is absurd and is outraged. Why so angry that someone else has an
'opinion' that differs from his own? Had Obama said that he thinks we should mandate that people go to college
then it'd be a different story. Isn't Santorum supposedly a Christian? Then why so judgemental of another persons
'opinion'? Not only judgemental, but 'outraged'! In Star Wars those who could not control their anger
were either called sith, or they worked for the Empire. Hateful and destructive people they were.
Oh man, I just can't get enough of these guys!!! I will be so sad when the primary season is over, the clowns jump back in the little car and it rolls out of town!!!!
So here's the new GOP rant: If we want to fatten up our kids and not educate them, then it's cool. We'll probably give them guns too, but that's part of a different rant. PRICELESS (and hilarious)
I would not vote for this man if he put a gun to my head.
I say keep em stupid so they'll vote for Santorum. Obama NEVER said everyone should go to college. He said they should be college ready...which means, basically, high scool graduate. If your kid wants to be a mechanic, fine. At least he can run his own business if he can read, write and count. Otherwise he will end up on the dole and become a target of people like, well, Rick Santorum.
Let me see if I have this right, wanting all children if possible get a college education is snobbery however, wanting laws deciding what women do with their bodies, what people do in their bedroom, no gays in the miltary, take away the welfare checks from the black folks and the Granddaddy of them all the jesus canidate with Sharia Christian laws just as I figured, he thinks he will be President of the United States , he is suffering from delussion!!
"Obama also said he intends for every student to graduate "career and college ready."
Why would that innocuous comment make Santorum "outraged" that the president thinks "every child in America should go to college?" Is Santorum against students graduating career and college ready? Maybe he would rather they graduated incapable of career or college?
Well of course this clown wants people uneducated. They're more easily persuaded by his BS if they don't think for themselves... Easier to control, right Ricky? They don't question nearly as much... And the Repos have the gall to accuse them Dems of class warfare...
Talk about hubris and elitism! That's great for Santorum who made millions in Washington, breakfasting with lobbyists and filling up the prok barrel but most Americans CAN'T afford to send their children to college. Certainly Obama didn't say any one HAS to go to college, only that all high school graduates should be ready and have the opportunity to get there if they want to! Being college ready means having a well rounded education which improves everyone's chance to find a job whether they want to be an auto mechanic or a Doctor. That's your children and mine. You know the ones he DOESN'T care about.
Sanatorium sounds more out of touch with reality every time he opens his mouth. If he cannot come with anything better than this to waste our time with, I think he should give up his candidacy.
Seven kids , I can understand why he feels so strongly about the cost of education .
Rick Santorum will be irrelevant in time.
If anybody needs proof that Republicans are insane, here it is.
So, Obama thinks all children should aspire to go to college, and should graduate college and career ready, and that's snobbery, because someone might want to go to a trade school instead of college? This is a good example of the 'if Obama is for it I have to be against it' silliness that has infected too many of the GOP.
Yes Mr Santorum, we understand that you feel it is only the rich who should attend college. You would love to see the lower class stay where they are. President obama is not saying that every child HAS to go to college... but each child should have that opportunity. You, Mr Santorum ... are the true snob.