Self proclaimed “presumptive” Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential nominee Willard Mitt Romney is reportedly pledging to push back against those evil teachers unions if he’s elected president.

Romney’s comments came (where else?) in response to his weekly soft ball questions from the intrepid interviewers on “Fox News Sunday,” “But the role I see that ought to remain in the president’s agenda with regards to education is to push back against the federal teachers unions.” He continued, “Those federal teachers unions have too much power, in some cases, they overwhelm the states, they overwhelm the local school districts. We have got to put the kids first and put these teachers unions behind.”

Romney reportedly said he’d not “necessarily” eliminate the Department of Education, but said it may be combined with other agencies and its “reach” into the states has to be “pulled back.”

Yes, because the darned federal teachers unions (of which there are none) and the Department of Education are way too intrusive making sure children with special needs are taken care of along with that pesky Title IX nonsense. So, once again Romney’s elitist attitudes surface as well as his now famous pandering to the extreme right of the GOTP; one has to ask, does he really think the President can just dismantle a federal cabinet level position, especially one created by fellow “conservative” Richard Millhouse Nixon?

But wait, Romney’s criticism of teachers was aimed at blaming the nation’s “over-paid” educators for the failure of the abysmal No Child Left Behind Act.

“I support the principle of having states test their kids … I did support No Child Left Behind and do support continuing to test our kids,” he said. “I want to know which school districts are succeeding and which ones are failing and where they are failing. I want there to be action taken to get the teacher unions out and to get the kids once again receiving the education they need.”

Two points; first, one more reason not to vote Romney is he supported No Child Left Behind; and second, how are you going to take “action” against “failing” school districts as president if you curtail the Department of Education? Wow, if that’s not classic Romney double speak I don’t know what is?

Romney reportedly continued his criticism of those “federal” teachers unions later at a town hall meeting in Vernon Hills, Ill. “We should pay our beginning teachers more,” he said, according to Crystal Lake Patch. “The national unions are too interested in benefits for the older teachers.”

Yes, we wouldn’t want to take care of the experienced teachers, and any benefits they might need for their eventual retirement. Exactly when did uber-conservatives decide teaching was some cushy job with loads of benefits? Clearly anyone who thinks that way has never spent any serious time teaching in the classroom, certainly Romney never has. Once again Willard’s hitting for the far right field fence, trying to score points with the ubers.