Presidential candidate Rick Santorum excoriated America's ailing education system on Thursday, suggesting that some of President Barack Obama's supporters are influenced by "indoctrination" in school curriculums.

Santorum focused his criticism on a recent survey showing that American students have fared more poorly in history than in any other subject. He defended his contention that the education students receive amounts to indoctrination.

"You wonder why young people can vote and flock for a guy like Barack Obama and say, if you look at the surveys, that socialism is better than capitalism -- well, that's because they don't understand America," Santorum said. "They haven't been taught."

Santorum also criticized the "humanism and secularism being pushed on our children," particularly in higher education, which he said was eroding religious belief.

"Sixty-two percent of incoming freshmen come into college with a faith conviction and leave without it," Santorum said. "I suspect if you took a control group of kids who don't go to college, that doesn't happen."

The remarks, delivered during a town hall meeting at a public library in Orange City, Iowa came less than two weeks before the Ames Straw Poll, a closely watched gauge of sentiment in Iowa.

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