School Choice only for Obama

Sidwell Friends

After a school search that inspired weeks of frenzied speculation among parents in the nation’s capital, President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, announced on Friday that they had decided to send their two daughters to Sidwell Friends School, the pricey and prestigious academy that has educated generations of this city’s elite.



I understand that the media is biased towards Democrats in general and Obama in particular. But these are also the same people who really are liberals at heart and care about the poor and the working and middle class struggling to improve. Yet, somehow they can't see the main hypocrisy of President elect Obama and his wife Michelle making a decision about what school was best for their child.

They wound up choosing a school that costs tens of thousands of dollars per year.

They thought for one reason or another that the public schools didn't offer what they wanted for their children.

The Obama family did what every family who loves their children would do, but many simply don't have the extra money after taxes to spend on education.

Obama should know that choice is an essential American value.
He should represent change and try to offer every other child the same choice his had.
Along the way, he can ensure that the public schools improve, but even if they do, that improvement may not be what a particular parent wants.

Democrats should promote equal access to a quality education, not a one size fits all model.
That model has failed to produce prosperity in almost every other facet of American life.

There are good arguments against vouchers and school choice. Democrats rarely make them.

They wind up making any argument that will convince the American public to stick with the status quo.

Craig Farmer
making the word "liberal" safe again!