Mitt Romney said that teacher unions work for their own self-interest rather than the well-being of the students in their school, a problem exacerbated by their political clout.
“The union has a different constituency than the parents have,” Romney said at the Education Nation 2012 Summit in New York City. “We simply can’t have a setting where the teachers unions are able to contribute tens of millions of dollars to the campaigns of politicians and then the politicians when they’re elected sit across the table [during contract negotiations].”
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Romney made these comments in response to a New York City parent who cited a poll indicating that parents supported the local teacher union as n organization fighting for students.
I don’t believe it for a minute,” Romney replied. “I do know something about polls,” he said to laughter from the audience, “and I know you can asks questions to get pretty much any answer that you want.”
