Rick Santorum said at Wednesday's GOP debate that he supported the No Child Left Behind education reform package because it "was the principle priority of President Bush," despite believing the legislation violated his conservative principles.
"I have to admit, I voted for that, it was against the principles I believed in, but you know, when you're part of the team, sometimes you take one for the team, for the leader, and I made a mistake. You know, politics is a team sports, folks, and sometimes you've got to rally together and do something, and in this case I thought testing and finding out how bad the problem was wasn't a bad idea," Santorum said.
Those comments drew harsh criticism from Ron Paul, who said that the "go along to get along" attitude was "the problem with Washington."
"I don't accept that form of government… I think the obligation to all of us should be the oath of office, not the oath to the party," Paul said.
Santorum said ultimately that while he supported performance measuring provisions in the legislation, the cost ultimately undermined the program.
"What was a bad idea was all the money that was put out there, and that in fact was a huge problem," Santorum said. "I admit to the mistake and I will not make that mistake again."
Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich largely sidestepped the No Child Left Behind issue, instead criticizing teachers' unions for their influence on education spending and regulation.
"We have to stand up to the federal teachers unions and put the kids first," said Mitt Romney.
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