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Ben Carson likes vocational training. Marco Rubio believes work and military service should count toward a degree. Jeb Bush is a big charter school proponent.

These are some of the stances touted recently at a forum where Republican contenders met to discuss a variety of pressing issues, a gathering that came amid a campaign season defined by national security, immigration and personality.

The Jack Kemp Foundation’s Forum on Expanding Opportunity took place in the home of the third primary contest, South Carolina, where six candidates talked substantively and cooperatively about poverty, drug addiction, opportunity, social and economic mobility — and education.

Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, John Kasich and Mike Huckabee attended, as did former candidate Lindsey Graham, who addressed the forum as South Carolina’s senior senator. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Donald Trump did not attend.

Almost every candidate supported education reform in some way or another, from kindergarten through higher education. Here’s what they had to say.

Jeb Bush defended his education bona fides from his time helping to start the now-defunct Liberty Charter School near Miami in 1996. Liberty, according to Bush, was one of the first four charter schools in the state. He noted specifically how the parents involved with the school shaped the education their children received – including corporal punishment, which Bush says he defended against objections from the school district.

Bush found fault in the way primary education is organized around the country, describing the approach as “butts in a seat,” and advocated a more customized system for each student. He also favored restructuring welfare to promote education “in a dramatically different fashion,” calling the portion of young people who are prepared to enter the workforce or higher education “shameful.”

Ben Carson defended vocational education, telling the story of an un-named CEO who couldn’t find a welder for an $80,000 salary. He also defended computerized education, citing a computer program that can tutor students in algebra by diagnosing what they do wrong, “the same thing a good algebra teacher can do, but the algebra teacher can only do it for one student at a time. The program can do it for a whole class, a whole city, a whole state.”

Also mentioning virtual classrooms and incentives for the best teachers, Carson talked about the STEM gap between the U.S. and other countries and the need for technical education in the information age. As a solution to failing inner-city schools, Carson defended school choice through state-run voucher programs.

He also described the reading rooms his foundation has created across the country, giving poor students in areas with failing schools access to books and incentives to read. Mentioning the 50 percent inner-city high school drop out rate and international competition in job markets, Carson declared: “We can’t afford to throw any of our people away.”

Chris Christie looked to the state-takeover of the notorious Camden school district as evidence that local control over education leads to better outcomes. Charter schools, renaissance schools and reformed policing led to the second year in a row of increased graduation rates, according to the New Jersey governor. “But that’s not the same solution for the City of Newark… If you leave this to the federal government… they swing with a meat axe instead of a scalpel,” he said.

He also called teachers unions “the single most destructive force for public education in this country,” and reiterated reforms he spearheaded in New Jersey on tenure, public school choice, and charter schools, all over the objections and political opposition of teachers unions.

Marco Rubio, between interruptions from immigration protestors, diagnosed America’s education problem in generational terms, giving the example of a single mother in a low-wage job: “the only way she’s ever going to get a raise is if she goes back to school and gets a degree that pays more.” Standing in her way, according to the senator, are that “school is too expensive, or school is during the day when she has to work.”

For primary education, Rubio endorsed a federalist approach, condemning what he described as a “national school board” dictating curricula and policy, a possible reference to the multi-state Common Core program. He also lamented that, in effect, poor people have the least choice in primary education because they can’t afford private alternatives. As a solution, he endorsed a program from Florida, where businesses can contribute to scholarship funds in return for tax incentives.

Repeating a motif of his campaign, he championed vocational education, including expansion of Pell Grants to high-school-age students. He also repeated his criticism of the accreditation oligopoly, insisting that work and military service could count toward a degree or some equivalent if not for “an outdated and outmoded accrediting model.”

John Kasich, as part of a broader summary of reforms in Ohio, discussed reforms to Cleveland schools, special individualized programs for possible drop-outs, adult education, job-focused education, and business mentorship programs.

Unique among the candidates, Kasich mentioned that the Ohio education system offers opportunities for the developmentally disabled to find jobs “in a hospital setting, a grocery, a Walmart, whatever, where they can perform, where their life has meaning.” He also emphasized the importance of early childhood education, especially for poor families, and improving the services of guidance counselors “so they actually guide students, so they’re not just involved in monitoring the gym or the cafeteria.” Echoing Rubio, he insisted that the traditional K-12 system did not prepare its students for “21st-century jobs.”

Mike Huckabee, echoing Charles Murray, pointed out that educational level – those who have high school diplomas vs. those who don’t – is a strong predictor of poverty in America. A child growing up in a home with two married high-school graduates has only a 12 percent chance of experiencing poverty. If one of those parents did not complete high school, that chance jumps to 91 percent. “The reversal is dramatic.” Throughout his remarks, he related the stability of the family to education. At the state level, to help people escape poverty, Huckabee would help “people understand that education is a critical ticket to avoiding poverty. Family matters.”

Carly Fiorina, who was originally scheduled to attend the event, was absent due to missing her plane, foundation president James Kemp told the crowd. Rick Santorum and Jim Gilmore were also absent.

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