Promising “extraordinarily radical proposals to fundamentally change the culture of poverty in America,” Newt Gingrich said Friday that he would fire school janitors and pay students to clean schools instead.

Speaking at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, the Republican presidential candidate and former speaker of the House challenged laws that prevent children from working certain jobs before their mid-teens.

Gingrich blames “the core policies of protecting unionization and bureaucratization" for “crippling” children.

“It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, in child laws, which are truly stupid,” he said.

”I tried for years to have a very simple model,” he continued. “Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they’d have pride in the schools, they’d begin the process of rising.”

Gingrich, who over the weekend said Occupy Wall Street protesters should "get a job" and "take a bath," suggested during the Harvard appearance Friday that poor children need to build a work ethic.

"Get any job that teaches you to show up on Monday," he said. "Get any job that teaches you to stay all day even if you’re having a fight with your girlfriend. I mean, the whole process of making work worthwhile is central."

Gingrich is the latest Republican presidential candidate to challenge front-runner Mitt Romney in the polls.

I had my first job when I was 10, working in my uncle's meat market. My job was to climb underneath the industrial disply freezers and break loose all the ice, clean out the drains, and wash the coolers. Once I was done with that I would go into the walk-in freezer and clean all the machinery, the walls and floors, drain, de-ice, and clean the chicken pit, then I would do the dishes.

Looking back on the experience today, it was probably the very best thing that ever happened to me.

I wouldn't change a thing about it, though. It made me a man in every sense.

I for one would not want to attend a school that the average teenager had "cleaned".

DE, you are failing to take into account the cool-factor of being the janitor at your own high school which is about -1,000,000 give or take. If it was some sort of rotational program I could also see the cool kids/bullies/haters taking a **** on the floor just to tease Jimmy Janitor about having to clean it up.

Funny thing about "cool factor" is that having money is cool. You can talk **** for a little while, but eventually the kid you're bullying figures out you're just a broke *** with no paycheck.

I'm noticing a pattern here. Newt is surging to the top of the polls, so all the dirt and hit pieces are starting to come out. Happend with Perry, just happend with Cain. It's almost like the MSM wants RINO Mitt to be the GOP nomination.

The dems would welcome Romney because it would shift the discussion window to the left on so many of their goals.

Guys, do you have any idea how much liberals/Dems/Obama would love to have Cain or Gingrich as the Republican nominee? I grant that Perry could be a threat, but Cain and Gingrich? Precisely zero chance of winning the general election.