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BY CHRISTINA HARTMAN Mitt Romney strayed from his usual campaign theme about the economy Wednesday to hit President Obama on education. KCRA has an excerpt of the speech, to a crowd of Hispanic business owners at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Wednesday. ROMNEY: "Here we are in the most prosperous nation on earth, but millions of our kids are getting a third-world education, and America's minority children suffer the most." He told the crowd — that's the "civil rights issue of our time." And to fix it — he's going back through the war chest — with a voucher-style system the AP's Steve Peoples expects to resurrect the debate over school choice. It would allow low-income and disabled students to choose schools. Federal aid would go with that student to his or her chosen school. In the speech Romney also proposed mandating "report cards" to mark school progress — calling the current federal evaluation system "cryptic." The voucher idea isn't new coming from a conservative — Republicans in Congress have introduced similar bills. Romney's camp says his plan would not require any additional federal spending on education. Fox's Charles Payne says he loves the idea — saying vouchers foster competition among schools. PAYNE: "Competition is the key. ... The interest of school linked to the student. How about that? Rather than linked to the unions, rather than a link to the teachers, how about we get rid of bad teachers, bring if good teachers and we do not paint them all with the same brush." But The Washington Post points out, "[Romney] made no mention of how he would fix failing public schools. ... He didn't say whether struggling schools should face consequences if they didn't get better." Business Insider's Grace Wyler calls the plan "vague" — and questions his choice to unveil it to a small business summit of Latino leaders — asking, "Is Mitt Romney embarrassed about having an education plan?" and saying it was... "...a decidedly odd audience and location for a speech on education policy. The speech ... was timed to coincide with President Obama's Air Force Academy commencement speech, virtually guaranteeing that Romney's news got limited airtime." According to Pew Research — President Obama leads Romney in support among Latino voters — 61 to 27 percent.