Kudos to President Obama for doing the right thing for his daughters:
Obama: D.C. schools don't measure up to his daughters' private school
By Nick Anderson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 27, 2010; 12:12 PM
President Obama said Monday that his daughters could not get the same level of education from D.C. public schools that they receive at the elite private school they attend.
Obama, following a path chosen by some of his predecessors in the White House, chose to enroll his daughters Malia and Sasha in the Sidwell Friends School soon after he won the 2008 presidential election.
In an appearance Monday morning on NBC's "Today" show, Obama was asked by a woman in a television audience whether a public school in his home city could measure up to the standards of his children's private school.
"I'll be blunt with you: The answer is no right now," the president replied. The D.C. public schools, he said "are struggling."
Obama added that the city's schools "have made some important strides over the last several years to move in the direction of reform. There are some terrific individual schools in the D.C. system."
Because he is the president, Obama said, if he wanted to get his daughters into one of those public schools, "we could probably maneuver to do it." But Obama said the "broader problem" is that parents without "a bunch of connections" don't have such options.
Obama was interviewed from the White House by NBC's Matt Lauer. The network is promoting education issues this week through a summit in New York City that it calls "Education Nation."
The back and forth over the merits of Sidwell and the D.C. public schools revived a topic much debated whenever a president has school-age children. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Richard M. Nixon and Bill Clinton sent children to Sidwell during their terms in the White House. Amy Carter, daughter of President Jimmy Carter, was the last White House student in modern times to attend a D.C. public school.
Tuition at Sidwell is more than $31,000 a year, according to the school's Web site.
Some of Obama's critics say it is hypocritical of him to spend that kind of money on private school while allowing a federal voucher program in the District to lapse . The D.C. voucher experiment provides funding for some low-income D.C. families to enroll their children in private school. The Democratic-led Congress and the Obama administration have rejected requests from voucher supporters to reauthorize the program.
Regarding vouchers, Obama administration officials have said the best federal policy is to support improvements for all schools.
Regarding the Obama daughters, some observers say that presidential children need to be shielded from public scrutiny and that enrolling in a private school like Sidwell is one of the most effective ways to do that.
The Obamas considered enrolling their daughters in D.C. schools in the fall of 2008, and discussed that option with city officials.
"We shared information on DCPS schools with them," Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee wrote Monday in an e-mail, "but [we were] completely supportive of their decision to send their children elsewhere. In terms of the comment from the president, it is a fair assessment. We have indeed, seen good progress over the last few years, but we still have a long way to go before we can say we're providing all children with an excellent education."
In the NBC interview, Obama was asked for his view on the documentary "Waiting for Superman," which depicts some of the challenges of improving urban schools. Obama said it is "heartbreaking" that some parents have to rely on a lottery to get their children into a school that they believe will meet their needs.
The educational future of children "shouldn't depend on the bounce of a ball," Obama told Lauer, referring to a lottery method. "Our goal is to make all schools high-quality schools."
Critics of the documentary have said it offers a one-sided, anti-union point of view. Obama said that many teachers unions are making efforts to improve schools through innovation but that sometimes they favor the status quo.
Staff writer Bill Turque contributed to this report.
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