“One Little Hour”

I had hoped (and posted) that Obama’s middle-of-the-road rhetoric on school reform options meant that he would support school choice. Instead he has acquiesced to the powerful teachers unions. The second paragraph of the article is particularly indicting:

Let’s call them Sidwell Liberals, after the famous Washington, D.C., school where President and Mrs. Obama send their daughters. Despite this personal experience, Mr. Obama signed into law a provision passed by Congress that shuts down Washington D.C.’s voucher program, depriving 1,700 disadvantaged kids of the chance to escape failing public schools through the use of scholarships that let them attend private schools. Two of them attend Sidwell Friends School with the Obama girls.

It saddens me that a man who seems to sincerely desire to help the underprivileged cannot (or will not) see such hypocrisy.

[Add. 9/10/o9] : I must revise my opinion of the President downwards. The more I ruminate on this issue the less willing I am to give Obama the benefit of the doubt. His is the “sin” of commission rather than just ommission.

Barack and Michelle Obama ought to be commended for choosing the best school possible for their two young girls, Malia and Natasha. Only a couple of days after Barack won the presidential election the Obamas announced that their children would attend Sidwell Friends School, a prestigious, Quaker-run institution that has a long pedigree of educating first sons and daughters. The school is of course private and the tuition prohibitive. But since the Obama’s get free government provided housing, a meal allowance, and a generous stipend they can well afford the best. After all, don’t all children, the future of America, deserve the best? (more…)