Former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee said that the National Education Association, the largest teachers' union, was the prime obstacle. Whenever anyone tries to give parents more choice regarding their children's education, Thompson said, "the NEA is there to oppose it."
As Thompson was making his point, his campaign staff sent an e-mail to reporters noting that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who has risen to the top in the polls in Iowa, was the only Republican candidate to address the NEA's annual convention in Philadelphia last summer.
Teachers' unions generally are seen as supporters of the Democratic Party.
On education, Huckabee said that Washington should serve as a clearinghouse for the best practices in education. And he cited his own record while Arkansas governor as being "the most impressive" in education.
That assertion was immediately challenged by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Huckabee's chief competitor in Iowa. Romney said that students in his own state had led the nation on standardized tests during his administration.
Most of the other candidates voiced support for giving parents more choices among public schools, private schools, charter schools, religious schools and home schooling.
The 90-minute debate - televised nationally by cable news networks and some PBS stations - was held in Johnston, Iowa, under the sponsorship of the Des Moines Register. The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses are set for Jan. 3.
At one point, the moderator, Register editor Carolyn Washburn, asked the candidates to raise their hands if they considered global climate change to be a real and serious matter caused, at least in part, by human activity.
