Ron Paul calls for dismantling Fed, Education Department

By Bobby Caina Calvan, Globe Staff

HOLLIS, N.H. -- Representative Ron Paul arrived in this village outside Manchester this morning for what was to be an intimate living room chat with supporters but instead found himself addressing more than a hundred people in the town recreation hall, where he touched on the major tenets of his campaign -- overhauling the country’s monetary system, hacking away at government spending, rebuilding the economy, bringing troops home, and preserving individual liberties.

“The campaign has picked up a lot of steam,” he told the crowd, adding later that he was an optimist counting on supporters to continue his surge. The latest polls show him in second place, although well behind former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.

During his 20 minute speech, he called for the dismantling the Federal Reserve to free the country, he said, of unwise monetary policies and ditching its paper currency in favor of a gold-based system. He also called for the elimination of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education, as well as other federal agencies that he said drain the nation’s resources.

“Education in a free society is the responsibility of the parents,” Paul said, although he said states can be given the authority to help in that task. He said government should not get in the way of private education and families who want to educate their children at home.

Eliminating the Department of Education would be a welcome outcome of a Paul presidency, said Ron Peik, a father of five who home schools his children and who invited Paul to visit his small and scenic village.

“We were planning to host him in our living room, maybe 40 to 50 people, but when the RSVPs started coming in, we decided it wasn’t going to work in our living room,” Peik said.

He said the public education system is broken in many communities, although he said his time in public schools served him well. He wanted more for his children, and decided to take on the task himself, with the aid of tutors.

“Home schooling is not just about sitting around the table eating toast and reading crispy textbooks from the 1960s,” he said.