Obama Girls to Sidwell Friends School

Look, I am not going to use this opportunity to chastise President Elect Obama for championing public education and then join a long line of "public school champions" who then send their kids to private schools. If I were coming to Washington, DC as a public official, I wouldn't want to send my kid to public schools there either. The Wall Street Journal does the job for me and talks about the Obamas plan to send their young girls to Sidwell Friends School instead of public school. The Wall Street Journal notes:

Note the word "selected," as in made a choice. The Obamas are fortunate to have the means to send their daughters to private school, and no one begrudges them that choice given that Washington's public schools are among the worst in America.

Most D.C. parents would also love to be able to choose a better school for their child, but they lack the financial means to do so. The Washington Opportunity Scholarship Program each year offers up to $7,500 to some 1,900 kids to attend private schools, but Democrats in Congress want to kill it. Average family income for kids in the voucher program is about $22,000.

Mr. Obama says he opposes such vouchers, because "although it might benefit some kids at the top, what you're going to do is leave a lot of kids at the bottom." The example of his own children refutes that: The current system offers plenty of choice to kids "at the top" while abandoning those at the bottom.

Look, Sidwell Friends school is a private institution where the Secret Service can provide good security (knowing the buildings as they do from the days of the Clinton Administration when Chelsea attended the school) without the hassle of dealing with "public access" to public schools. I get it and that is fine with me.

But the many on the right will point out the hypocrisy and perhpas rightfully so.