Mitt Romney told a largely sympathetic crowd of business owners “sometimes I think the guys in Washington don’t love you very much. I love you.” In one of his first major speeches to a Hispanic group since becoming the likely Republican nominee, Romney spoke at the Latino Coalition’s Economic Summit in Washington DC today.

Telling them he needs their votes in November, Romney promised to reform education, cut regulations for small businesses and abolish Obamacare, the President’s health care reform.

Though the Romney campaign has made the economy their central issue, the Republican candidate decided to focus on education when he spoke to the Hispanic entrepreneurial group.

He called education “the civil rights issue of our time” and stating that millions of American children are receiving a “third world education.” Romney was fiercely critical of teacher unions, saying their main purpose was to raise money for President Obama and the Democratic party.

Romney drew wide applause when he announced a system of vouchers to allow any parent to send a child to the charter school of their choice. Romney’s policy director, however, did acknowledge separately to reporters there was currently no mechanism to address “capacity issues.” Currently charter schools only serve around two million U.S. students. Moreover, a recent Stanford University study found 37 percent of charter schools perform worse than traditional public schools, so the issue will surely raise questions for Romney on how this would be executed.

Read the full story at NBC Latino