4:57 p.m. | Updated Newt Gingrich has some unconventional ideas about education reform. He wants every state to open a work-study college where students work 20 hours a week during the school year and full-time in the summer and then graduate debt-free.In poverty stricken K-12 districts, Mr. Gingrich said that schools should enlist students as young as 9 to14 to mop hallways and bathrooms, and pay them a wage. Currently child-labor laws and unions keep poor students from bootstrapping their way into middle class, Mr. Gingrich said.“This is something that no liberal wants to deal with,†he told an audience at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard on Friday, according to Politico.“You say to somebody, you shouldn’t go to work before you’re what, 14, 16 years of age, fine,†Mr. Gingrich said. “You’re totally poor. You’re in a school that is failing with a teacher that is failing. I’ve tried for years to have a very simple model. Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they’d begin the process of rising.â€Mr. Gingrich, who back in 1994 proposed bringing back orphanages for children on welfare, was quickly labeled “Dickensian†by people commenting on Twitter.Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called Mr. Gingrich’s proposal “absurd.â€â€œWho in their right mind would lay off janitors and replace them with disadvantaged children — who should be in school, and not cleaning schools,†Ms. Weingarten said. “And who would start backtracking on laws designed to halt the exploitation of children?â€At Harvard Mr. Gingrich promised, “You’re going to see from me extraordinarily radical proposals to fundamentally change the culture of poverty in America and give people a chance to rise very rapidly.â€
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