CONCORD — As a yellow school bus, carrying teachers from New Hampshire and Massachusetts, rolled up for the first of several press conferences around the state Wednesday in conjunction with the Obama administration announcement of a program to create an elite corps of master teachers it wasn’t all cheers.

Concord resident Charles Pewitt loudly and relentlessly accused the teachers of wanting more money and power through their unions.

Pewitt also accused the Obama administration of flooding public schools with 1 million third-world immigrants a year. “Why should good native-born Manchester kids have to suffer for that?” he yelled at the teachers.

But the teachers had a different story they wanted told. They said presumptive Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants to cut Pell grants, making college unaffordable to middle class students, wants to eliminate other education grants for schools districts and believes teachers, police and firefighters are not essential jobs for America.

Erik Champy, a Massachusetts Teachers Association director from Lawrence, Mass., said “I lived through Mitt Romney’s term as governor. I would not want to go back to his failed policies.”

He said Romney cut state aid to public education by 9.1 percent, which was the second highest per pupil cut in the nation. Champy also said Romney eliminated the early literacy program and class sizes grew under his administration.

Newly elected National Education Association — New Hampshire president Scott McGilvrary of Manchester said, “The bottom line is (presumptive Republican Presidential candidate Mitt) Romney wants to cut, cut, cut to give tax breaks to the wealthy. That’s not going to work and its hurts the children and the country’s economic ability to compete in the future.”

He said Romney would put millionaires and investors first, not the middle class and their children’s education.

“It’s no surprise the liberal union bosses are coming to President Obama’s defense,” said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams. “When Gov. Romney was in office he consistently put the interests of Massachusetts schools and their students above the interests of liberal teacher unions who tried to influence education policy in the Bay State.”

He said when Romney was governor, fourth- and eighth-grade students in Massachusetts scored highest in the country in English and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests. “You can’t argue with being number one in the country,” Williams said.

He also pointed to the Adams Scholarship Program, which provides free tuition for students who score in the top 25 percent in their district, which began under the Romney administration.

“This is a record he is proud of,” Williams said, “and Democrats can’t explain when they launch their false and dishonest ads.”

The teachers’ bus tour, beginning in Concord and journeying to Laconia, Rochester, Portsmouth and Manchester, was intended to contrast Obama’s accomplishments on education with Romney’s record in Massachusetts.

“President Obama has made education a national priority. The President has invested in education, worked to raise K-12 standards, and he has taken steps to make college more affordable so that students from middle-class families can afford the education they need to compete in the global economy,” said Holly Shulman, communications director for the Obama Campaign in New Hampshire. “What Mitt Romney doesn’t seem to understand is that to create true middle-class security, we can’t just cut our way to prosperity. A quality education is a fundamental part of President Obama’s plan to out-innovate, out-educate, and out-build the world.”

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Garry Rayno may be reached at grayno@unionleader.com.