Dec. 12 Republican debate transcript

Washburn: Congressman Hunter?

Hunter: Three words: Jaime Escalante and inspiration.

Jaime Escalante was a great math teacher who, in the barrio of Los Angeles, taught young kids calculus. And he taught them so well that the school district called up and said, "We got a problem. We think your kids are cheating on the tests." And he said, "Test them again."

And he established this incredible system of calculus in the school district by inspiring young people.

How many of us have our careers that can point back to a teacher and say, "That teacher inspired me"?

What we have to do is take away the bureaucratic credentialing of teachers and allow people who are aerospace engineers and pilots and scientists and retired folks to come in and inspire young people in third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades. Let's inspire them to reach for the stars and give them the incentive to work hard enough to get there.

Inspiration, changing the credentialing system and school choice.

Washburn: Hasn't that teacher since left the public school system?

Hunter: You know why? I read -- the postmortem on Jaime Escalante is that the unions ran him out of the school district. And I think that goes right to one of the big problems that we have.

Washburn: If we need to improve our educational system quickly to be more competitive in the world, does the federal government need to exercise different influence than it has historically over educational standards? If so, in what ways? And if not, how do you encourage state to meet national goals to move us forward?

Governor Romney?

Romney: Carolyn, these are 60-second answers, right?

Washburn: Yes.

(Laughter)

Romney: OK. Let's make sure. Because the time's going pretty quick here.

Education's an important topic, and the president was right to fight for No Child Left Behind, because we allow states now to test our kids and see how well they're doing, particularly in math and English.

We've made the same effort in our state, actually before No Child Left Behind was passed. We test our kids. We have high standards. We teach them in English, English immersion. We say to be successful in America you got to speak the language of America.

We also put in place incentives for kids to do well.

For those that take the graduation exam, which you have to take to get out of high school, we say that you're going to get, if you score in the top 25 percent of the test, a four-year, tuition-free scholarship to a Massachusetts institution of higher learning.

Washburn: But what about the role of the federal government?

Romney: And the federal government insists on those tests and those standards, and it's key. And let me continue.

I think we also have to have higher pay for better teachers. And people who are not good teachers ought to find a difference career.

And finally, we need more parental involvement. And we've tested our kids in Massachusetts, along with all the other kids in the nation. Fifty states get tested every two years in English and math, in 4th and 8th grade.

My 8th graders came out number one in English. They came out number one in math; my 4th graders, number one in English, number one in math -- for the first time in history, one state, number one in all four measures.

School choice, better pay for better teachers, high standards, scholarships for the best kids, English immersion -- these principles work.

Washburn: Governor Huckabee?

Huckabee: First of all, the whole role of education is a state issue. It's not really a federal issue. And the worst thing that we can do is to shift more burden, more responsibility, more authority to the federal government, when more of it needs to go to the states.

But I think the federal government can play a pivotal role in, primarily, in helping to make sure that the best practices that are working in the states are shared with states who are struggling.

Let me give you a couple of examples of what has to happen in all the states -- and the federal government can at least share the data and the information.

One, personalize the learning for the student. We have 6,000 kids every day drop out in this country. And they don't drop out because they're dumb. They drop out because they're bored to death. They're in a 19th century education system in a 21st century world.

If we really are serious, then, first of all, we make sure that we build the curriculum around their interests, rather than just push them into something they don't care.

Second thing, unleash weapons of mass instruction. I'm a passionate, ardent supporter of having music and art in every school for every student at every grade level...

Washburn: Time.

(Applause)

Huckabee: ... because -- let me just make sure you understand why. It's not frivolous. It's because, if we don't develop the right side of the brain with the same level of attention as we do the left, which is the logical side, we end up with an unbalanced, bored student, which is exactly what we've done. And we're dropping students out of our system because of it.