Question: How you make sure our students are globally competitive?

Mitt Romney: Well first of all we have to improve K through 12 – the education in the first years of . . . of a child’s life. That’s really critical. And Iowa has always been a leader in education. It needs to continue to be a leader in education. In my state I fought for high standards for testing for our kids before they get out of high school. I fought to make sure that our kids are taught in English in our schools. We have English immersion now. We used to have bilingual education. I think to be successful in America, you gotta speak the language of America. I also fought for school choice. My legislature passed a bill saying no more charter schools. I vetoed that. That veto was sustained, so I was able to preserve school choice. So that’s one thing we have to do.Number two, you wanna recognize excellence. And again in my state, I fought for the Adams Scholarship and got that instituted. If you graduate among the top quarter of the high school students in your high school, you get a four-year, tuition free scholarship to a Massachusetts public institution of higher learning. And finally I proposed at the nation level that all middle income families – that’s families earning $200,000 a year and less – would be able to save their money with a new tax rate in their savings. Interest, dividend, capital gains will be taxed at absolutely zero. Let people save their money so the kids are more able to have families that can help them prepare for the expensive burden of college.

Recorded on: 11/26/07