PHILADELPHIA â" Making a rare inner-city campaign stop, Mitt Romney preached the merits of traditional two-parent families and touted his platform of educational choice at a West Philadelphia charter school Thursday.
The Republican presidential candidate had little political reason during the primaries to visit heavily Democratic neighborhoods like Carroll Park. And his initial foray as the all-but-certain GOP nominee probably had more to do with outreach to suburban moderates than to African Americans, who are strongly behind President Obama.
When Romney's customized campaign bus rolled up to the Universal Bluford Charter School, he could see signs on the row houses across the street, including one that bore Obama's picture and the words "We got your back." Another read, "Stop Privatizing."
Inside the newly renovated two-story brick school building, the welcome was much friendlier, though Romney was challenged repeatedly during a round table discussion with educators to defend his claim that reducing class size doesn't improve student performance. The former Massachusetts governor contends that pressing for smaller classes is a ploy by teachers unions â" one of his favorite targets â" to get more teachers hired.
Steven Morris, a music instructor at Bluford, told Romney: "I can't think of any teacher in the whole time I have been teaching, 13 years, who would say that more students [in the classroom] would benefit them. And I can't think of a parent that would say I would like my teacher to be in a room with a lot of kids and only one teacher."
Ronald Benner, whose technology classes range from 23 to 28 students, chimed in that "you can give more personalized attention to each student if you have a smaller class size." Another teacher emphasized the importance of keeping classes below 18 students in early primary grades. (At the private Cranbrook School in Michigan, which Romney attended, class size is limited to 18 in first through fifth grades.)
Romney, in a blue tie and white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, acknowledged that "if you had a class of five, that would be terrific. If you had a class of 50, that's impossible." But he said a McKinsey Global Institute study had compared U.S. student performance with countries like Singapore, South Korea and Finland and found that class size didn't matter.
The consultants found that, "gosh, in schools that are the highest-performing in the world, their classroom sizes are about the same as in the United States. So it's not the classroom size that's driving the success of those school systems," Romney said. Instead, parental involvement and top-flight teachers and administrators make the difference.
Romney reiterated his contention that "the gap in the educational opportunity and achievement of people of color in this society, I believe, is the civil rights issue of our time."
He added that "having two parents in a home makes an enormous difference. And so if we're thinking about the kids of tomorrow, trying to help move people to understand, you know, getting married and having families where there's a mom and a dad together has a big impact. That's, in my view, that's critical down the road."
Creating jobs for minority parents is also crucial, Romney said, acknowledging that "in many cases" it's not possible to have "intact families."
Later, as Romney was touring the predominantly black school, which the city school district turned over to a charter operator in an effort to improve student achievement, local Democratic politicians held a news conference on a sidewalk outside criticizing the Republican's visit.
Philadelphia Dist. Atty. Seth Williams, standing behind an Obama campaign sign, said that instead of "getting back on his huge bus," Romney should venture into the street. "I'm not saying that he shouldn't be here, but it'd be very important if he were to really meet real people and talk to them for more than just a press event," Williams said.
Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter wondered how much Romney would learn in a visit of less than two hours.
"I don't know that a one-day experience in the heart of West Philadelphia is enough to get you ready to run the United States of America," said Nutter, surrounded by dozens of chanting Obama supporters and neighborhood residents.
"Mitt Romney running his financial services firm put people out of work, damaged Americans, damaged families, caused people to lose their jobs, possibly losing their homes and all of that," the mayor said. "So let's talk about that. You want to have an urban experience? You want to have a West Philly experience? Then come out here and talk to somebody in West Philly."
paul.west@latimes.com
Times staff writer Mitchell Landsberg contributed to this report.
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