Apparently Mitt Romney has officially declared war against the teachers unions.  This is according to a Washington Times article about Romney’s speech yesterday to the Latino Coalition.  I couldn’t be more thrilled!   Romney’s speech was set to focus mainly on education reform.  Good.  It’s about time someone called out the teachers unions for what they really are and propose a plan to empower parents, not bureaucrats.

During his speech, Romney drew his line in the sand, supporting the Washington D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a successful voucher program that was killed off by Obama and the Democrats.  A quick recap: this program was established in 2004 and provided vouchers for children to attend private schools in the DC area. The program was efficient. The voucher cost $7,500 a year per student, meanwhile a government education in DC government schools cost $18,339 a year per student. Not to mention the fact that studies showed improvements in student performance, particularly in reading.  According to the Heritage Foundation, student academic achievement surpassed their peers in government schools and graduation rates increased significantly: “While graduation rates in D.C. Public Schools hover around 55 percent, students who used a voucher to attend private school had a 91 percent graduation rate.”  But despite all of that, Obama’s 2012 budget put an end to the voucher program.  Why?  Two words: Teachers unions.

So this where Mitt Romney butts heads with the teachers unions.  First he supports vouchers, then he has some fightin’ words.  He told the Latino Coalition that teachers unions “are the clearest example of a group that has lost its way … President Obama has been unable to stand up to union bosses — and unwilling to stand up for kids.”

I’ve said this before, and I will not shy away from it now because it is so important:  Teachers unions will prove to be a more long-term destructive force in America than al Qaeda.  I’ll prepare Web Guy and Cristina for the emails!

Now if it were up to me, we would do away with the Department of Education altogether.  But Jamie Dupree has an overview of Mitt Romney’s plan to give parents more choices in the education of their children, including vouchers for government, charter and public schools.