Montgomery County Republican Party Chairman Mark Uncapher responded to a protest of Mitt Romney by school bus drivers by asking if bus drivers were willing to accept responsibility for failing schools. 

Uncapher made the comments in the Sept. 1 issue of the county GOP’s newsletter.

The “Chairman’s Message” focused on a Patch report about a protest on Thursday over comments made by the Republican presidential nominee about school bus drivers.

The drivers took issue with a message Romney has repeated on the campaign trail that bus drivers should not get credit when students make their school’s honor roll.

Drivers carried signs along Crabbs Branch Way in Rockville on Thursday as part of a protest organized by the union that represents county school bus drivers. They said Romney’s comments imply that bus drivers do not contribute to a child’s education and are offensive.

“Seriously, you cannot make this stuff up,” Uncapher wrote of the protest, before offering a link to the Patch article.

“I do not minimize the responsibility or professionalism of Montgomery County's school bus drivers,” Uncapher wrote. “However their [sic] trying to claim credit for whether individual students making the honor roll is simply silly. They frankly should be embarrassed for trying to make this argument. However SEIU does not embarrass easily.”

Uncapher asked if bus drivers serving high-performing schools are better than those serving lower-performing schools.

“If they want to take credit for kids making the honor roll, are they also will to accept responsibility for failing schools?” he wrote. “ … Are the bus drivers for the Walt Whitman, Walter Johnson and Churchill clusters that much better than those for Kennedy, Einstein and Wheaton? Probably not.”

Click here to read Uncapher's entire message.