GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum admitted that his vote to support No Child Left Behind was against his principles today on "This Week."

"Well, looking back on it, that was the case," Santorum told me after I asked him if the vote violated his principles. "And I said, you know, that was - that's not what I believe in," he added.

Santorum explained during a recent presidential debate that, "sometimes you take one for the team. " He used his appearance this morning to call into question Mitt Romney's "principles."

"Governor Romney is not only wrong on the issue of education with the federal government and the state government having, you know, basically micromanaged it from the top down," said Santorum. "He's also wrong on a whole host of other principles of government involvement in the health care system, government involvement in energy and manufacturing with cap-and-trade and as he proudly proclaimed that he was going to put the first carbon cap in the country."

Santorum was responding to my question about his answer in a recent GOP presidential debate about his support of No Child Left Behind.

Romney chided him for his vote during the debate, but Santorum dismissed those attacks.

"If you look at my record, in particular on education, what I've been proposing and fighting for is to get the federal government out of the education system, actually get the state less in the education business and bring it back to families and communities.  And here in, you know, where education should be," said Santorum. "Governor Romney defends No Child Left Behind and supports it today.  I don't, because it's against the principles I believe in.  It's obviously not against the principles that Governor Romney - I have principles.  I have principles that support the basic foundational principles of our country."