Donald Trump says if he'd been president, Osama bin Laden would have been taken out before the World Trade Center towers fell to hijacked planes commandeered by his followers. Trump's bold remarks at a Cleveland charter school, where he unveiled a $20 billion school-choice proposal to send every child living in poverty to the K-12 school of their choice, came three days short of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

CLEVELAND � Donald Trump says if he�d been president, Osama bin Laden would have been taken out before the World Trade Center towers fell to hijacked planes commandeered by his followers.

Trump�s bold remarks at a Cleveland charter school, where he unveiled a $20 billion school-choice proposal to send every child living in poverty to the K-12 school of their choice, came three days short of the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

�I would have been tougher on terrorism. Bin Laden would have been caught a long time ago before he was ultimately caught, prior to the downing of the World Trade Center,� Trump said to a crowd of about 150 people at a charter school.

Trump made his remarks after railing against the service of Democrat Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, saying she and President Barack Obama helped give birth to the Islamic State and its breed of terrorism.

President George W. Bush, a Republican, was in office when hijacked planes slammed into the New York landmarks and the Pentagon and another crashed in rural Pennsylvania after passengers intervened.

Previously, President Bill Clinton had gone after bin Laden�s forces with a missile attack but failed. The Bush administration never succeeded in tracking down the terrorist leader. He was killed on Obama�s watch by Navy SEALS on May 2, 2011, at his hiding spot in Pakistan.

Education, particularly for children living in poverty in inner cities, was Trump�

Trump blamed Clinton for diplomacy and policies that destabilized the Middle East: �She made us less safe than ever before. She put the entire country at risk.�

He blasted Clinton for her State Department email scandal and the Clinton Foundation�s fundraising practices.

�It�s all about the hidden criminal enterprise,� he said. �As part of a criminal coverup.�

Trump continued to steadfastly claim � in total opposition to documentation to the contrary � that he opposed the Iraq war when the U.S. launched the attack, which Clinton voted to support while in the U.S. Senate.

He quoted from an Esquire magazine article after the war was begun in which he expressed doubts about the war and its goals.

�I just wanted to set the record straight,� Trump said. �The media is so dishonest, so terribly dishonest.�

Trump also introduced a new proposal to rescue children in poverty from schools he described as held hostage to mediocrity by bureaucrats and teachers unions.

�Every child will be placed on the ladder to success, and I define that as a great education and a great job,� he said.

He spoke of breaking up the �government-run education monopoly,� beginning by reallocating $20 billion in existing federal funds � he didn�t say from where � to allow children in poverty to attend any public, private, charter or religious school their parents choose.

�The Democratic Party has trapped millions of African-American and Hispanic children in failing public schools,� the candidate said as he spoke at a largely black school in an African-American neighborhood on Cleveland�s east side.

Ohio permits parents to enroll their children in any privately operated charter school, which are funded by tax dollars, and offers scholarships to permit children attending low-performing public schools to attend other schools. Trump praised Ohio for its school-choice programs.

Trump also spoke of crime-ridden cities such as Chicago and Baltimore and said inner-city residents will have safe streets on which to walk to school with their children.

The New York businessman also called for a greater expansion of merit pay to successful teachers to replace �the failed tenure system that rewards bad teachers.�

Trump received only polite applause form a half-black, half-white crowd in the cafeteria of the school, which received a �D� on its state-issued report card in the latest evaluation. School officials say students have made good progress and are turning the corner to achievement.

Mary Rice, a former board member of the school, welcomed Trump�s focus on school choice as a �very auspicious program,� but she said it will take a nation � not just a president � to ensure all children receive a quality education. She is not a Trump supporter.

In a statement, Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper called Trump a �snake-oil salesman.�

�If Trump wants to discuss real solutions � like how we can hold charters to high standards and ensure they�re serving our kids, how we can reinvest in our neighborhood schools, and how we can return the joy of teaching and learning to our classrooms � I�m ready and willing to have that conversation. But the last thing we need is another billionaire who thinks he knows more about education than the people who spend every day working to give our kids a fair shot,� she said.

rludlow@dispatch.com

@RandyLudlow