Will Obama Support Public Education or Go Private?

[deacon blues]

Is Obama willing to put his school-aged daughters where his political promises have been? Will Obama send his girls to private school while he continues to oppose programs that offer a similar choice to less fortunate parents?

Vouchers as an alternative to public schools is favored by black parents by larger majorities than white parents do. Black students face a disproportionately number of under-performing schools.

Teachers unions lead the opposition against vouchers. A 2004 Thomas B. Fordham Institute report found big-city public school teachers to more likely to have their own children in private schools.

Michele Obama toured the private Georgetown Day School this week. The Obama's daughters already attend a private school in Chicago. My guess is they'll go private while denying less fortunate Americans the right to choose the school that woud best suit their child.

School Chancellor Michelle Rhee of Washington DC a single mom of two has her daughters enrolled in the troubled DC school system. She has closed 23 schools, restructered 27, fired more than 250 teachers and dumped about 1/3 of the system's principals.

She recently asked a critical question to a principal who was defending a teacher: "Would you put your grandchild in that class?" The principal replied "If that's the standard, we don't have any effective teachers in my school." Rhee's response: "That is the standard."

Public schools belong to all of us, whether we use them or not. We should treat the students as though they belong to all of us, too. And that includes the president-elect.

(The above is a reworking of an editorial by Clarence Page of The Chicago Tribune, November 13,, 2008)