When it comes to the issue of whether Americans should hire more teachers or less, the one person everyone can disagree with is Mitt Romney. He doesn't even agree with himself on whether we should have more teachers.

First, Mitt Romney claimed, in a discussion session with Philadelphia teachers in late May, that smaller class sizes - which could be made possible by more teachers - really wouldn't help students much:

Remember - Mr. Romney was trying to sell this to schoolteachers in Philadelphia - who were having none of it. Those teachers know that smaller class size does indeed lead to better outcomes for students.


The next time Mitt's opinions of teachers came up is his recent statement that "It's time to cut back on government..."

Of course, as Paul Krugman noted, when you say you want to cut back on government, that means cutting government workers - which means you're talking about firing teachers.


Finally, Mitt went back on Fox and reversed course, claiming that any accusation against him that says he doesn't want to hire more teachers is "a very strange accusation" and is "completely absurd".

Well, Mitt.. . There's at least one thing we can agree on.

Your comments seem "completely absurd" to us too.