Posted on 11/18/2008 3:18:46 AM PST by billorites
Will Barack Obama, a man of the people, entrust his daughters' education to the Washington, D.C., public school system?
This is doubtful. And no one should criticize him if he didn't. Washington, D.C., and Chicago are teeming with parents who long to send their children to private or parochial schools. The difference between the Obamas and these other families is that the Obamas have money and power.
Another difference is that Obama would deny these other families the same type of educational options his family has. For Obama opposes school choice. He says it weakens public education. He says this while he exercises that choice, sending his girls to private school.
Last year the D.C. public school system spent an average of $13,500 per child, the third-highest per-pupil allotment in the nation. Yet its national test scores remained at the bottom. If parents could take half of that $13,500 and spend it at a private school, everyone would win. More kids would get educated, and the school system would be left with more money to spend on reform.
But Obama remains steadfastly opposed. As he has said, he "owes" his political career to unions. Keeping another generation of inner-city kids locked in the grip of teachers unions is how he intends to repay them. Just as long as his own kids are not among this next lost generation, that is.
I really don’t get it, the Democrats are the “champions” of public school, yet they do not allow THEIR children to attend them, and they do not allow vouchers to other children who could benefit from private school. It is maddening!
THEN HE OWES IT THOSE UNIONS TO SEND HIS CHILDREN TO PUBLIC SCHOOL. Or is he just another hypocrite and Limousine liberal?
And so it goes. Right down the drain.
Of course he is; why even ask?
He'll do his duty to the unions by keeping everyone but the rich and/or highly motivated in the government schools. They don't expect their "biggest supporters" to actually patronize the dumps -- just keep the political favors coming.
Obama is the biggest advocate of aborting children before they ever get a chance to head to a school. It all fits together when the big picture is viewed. Kids, and oddly enough, especially black and poor kids, are the most expendable in the Obama society.
Private schools for me but not for thee...
I would be willing to be that most teachers and administrators in the DC school system don’t send their kids to school there. That is certainly true in a lot of other big city districts.
You are right, they practice school choice but work very hard to make sure the poor have no choice. Oh well, Obama will fix it all I am sure. He will start by giving twice the money to DC schools. More money for Dem principals, Dem counselors, etc.. Life goes on
The ruling class prevails over the ruled.
DC public schools are Smithsonian guard producers.
It would be dangerous for the presidents children to go to a public school. Does it really matter what school he sends his children to anyway?
Obama has every right to send his children to private schools if he so chooses. But it is hypocritical for him to deny other parents that same choice by opposing school vouchers. It is hypocritical for him to pretend to be concerned about the poor while opposing school vouchers, which give poor children access to the kind of private education that might help lift them out of poverty. It is hypocritical of him to want to protect his own children from the very real dangers that students must face in inner-city public schools while turning his back on those students who are stuck in those schools because they can’t afford private school.
Finally, let me add this. Those of us who send our children to private school or who homeschool are paying twice for education. We pay directly out of our pockets for the education of our own children and then we pay taxes (usually property taxes, which are always increasing) for the education of other people’s children. And most of us, unlike the Obamas, are not rich. School vouchers or tax credits would certainly remedy the injustice of a system where parents like us have to pay twice for education and it would enable lower-income families to send their children to the schools of their choice. I don’t see how anyone except die-hard supporters of the teachers unions and those who have a vested, financial interest in the bloated public schools could oppose this.
I thought Obama’s kids went to a public school in Chicago?
Yep just like the rich liberals who brazenly call me racist for not supporting Obama, but who stay tucked away in their plush suburban neighborhoods. They’d pee their pants if they ever stepped foot in my neck of the woods and would never (gasp) send their kids to a mostly minority school as I happily do.
The $13,000 a head pricetag boggles the mind. I homeschooled 5 kids for less than $1000 a year. I could have done it for less, but I was in a splurging kind of mood.
You were mistaken. They attend a very prestigious and highly-regarded (among such types) private school associated with the University of Chicago.
Quite true.
No— they attend the Univ. of Chicago Laboratory School, which is private and exclusive.
As others has pointed out he has every right to educate his children where and how he sees fit, but to remain close fisted on vouchers is quintessential hypocrisy.
The really sad thing here is that his daughters could probably be a role model and inspiration for their classmates in the DC schools and encourage those kids to do well.
The more that things CHANGE, the more they stay the same.
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