That is how much the Obama’s will spend this year on their 10 and 7 year old daughters education. The Obama’s announced today that their daughters will attend the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. come January.
I am beyond stunned. In perhaps the worst economic downturn in 50 years, the Obama’s are going to spend more this year to send their daughters to private school than my ENTIRE college career will cost. What kind of message does that send? Certainly not that he’s “one of us.”
The Obama’s will claim that it’s for security reasons. But the simple fact remains that the Obama girls have ALWAYS attended private school, even before he became “The One.” They have just as much of a chance of something possibly happening to them in a private school setting as they do in a public one. Unless Sidwell is guarded by armes Brown Shirts, then anyone that wants to harm the Obama children, god forbid, will be able to.
How can Barack Obama expect to figure out what in the public education system needs to be fixed if he isn’t even willing to send his girls into the trenches. He would have gotten a lot more respect from me had he done so. I think what disappoints me more is that the family apparently didn’t even consider public school.
Oh, and another interesting tidbit. Sidwell Friends is the same school Chelsea Clinton attended. Yea, because we need yet another Obama-Clinton connection.
Sorry, Mr. President-elect. Strike One.
Strike One ?
Kenny Solomon Friday, November 21st at 8:21PM EST (link)Hardly.
Strike ten-thousand nine-hundred seventy-two.
Of course you can have my guns……. Bullets first.
I didn’t say rounds, shells or magazines……
I said bullets first.
Yes, I love the smell of hypocrisy
izoneguy Friday, November 21st at 9:49PM EST (link)I had brought this up before the election on the first day Obama took his daughters to their private school in Chicago. Obama is not a common person.
He hates the working class. Why they voted for the biggest hypocrite that ever ran for president is beyond me.
I thought we had bought honor back to the White House after Clinton. Now Obama is carrying all the Clinton baggage right back in.
Look for education in the US to suffer through the worst downturn ever.
“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson
I wish you were too
Erick Brockway Friday, November 21st at 9:55PM EST (link)Public school seems not even to have been an option.
Good enough for my kids but not his?
Note to lefties;
“Don’t be afraid to see what you see.”
Ronald Reagan
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Obama the elitist hypocrite
Freedoms Truth Saturday, November 22nd at 12:06AM EST (link)He voted against school choice for the poor people of DC in failed public schools but wont send his own children to public schools.
This is the kind of elitist out-of-touch behavior that leads to politicians not understanding nor caring for the real needs of real Americans.
Freedoms Truth,
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Austin, TX
but... but... but... (let me preempt the Lefty loons)
JLenardDetroit Saturday, November 22nd at 12:33AM EST (link)but… “Republicans send their kids to Private Schools!”
Dear Lefty loon (that want to chant that dismissal): WE advocate School Choices!!!
(RS:Help) (JLD) (Hollyweird) (Brain-deads) (SPIN-cycle) (Obamaocare) (Party of kNOw) (Conservatism) (TEApeats) (respectful) (Reco) (Quotes) (removeRINOs.com) (Merry RSmas)
+ 0bama Lies & your Bank acct will Die! (4/15 Truthers)
+ Heil “O” Hell No Obamao is NOT MY PRESIDENT! “No U won’t”
+ I want “O” to FAIL (here, here, & whole Diary (Ofail) here, is why)
“The first Liberal was Satan” - a Rush caller (other Quotes)
I love to tell people that those same poor people...
JadedByPolitics Saturday, November 22nd at 12:50AM EST (link)who REALLY believe that he will pay their bills are going to be just as or poorer than they were when he went in….I tell you my friends that it is going to a lot of fun to see all those young kids minds explode at being taken…..I myself became Jaded by the lying liars known as politicians
FUN TIMES!
Whoever has his enemy at his mercy &
does not destroy him is his own enemy
What do you know about DC schools?
DC71 Saturday, November 22nd at 2:13AM EST (link)OK smart guys, since you know the DC school system so well, answer me this. Which DC public school is equipped to handle having the Obama girls there? Wilson? Cardozo? Can you even name a DC public school? I mean, you guys have all the knowledge on this, enlighten me.
This is just a dumb argument. There is no hypocrisy. The girls go to Sidwell because Sidwell has experience handling students who require special protection and have the facilities and staff to do so. A DC public school just does not have the capacity to handle this. If you can think of one that does, I’d like to hear it. Putting the kids in DC public school would be horribly disruptive to all the other students as well. The DC school system that has enough trouble as it is and having the Obama children there would hurt every student in attendance by draining needed resources and causing an unnecessary distraction.
Now, you are going to bring up the fallacy of school choice as a long term solution. We have it here in DC with our voucher and charter school systems. And it works here for those students who get it. You know why it works? Because the program is limited to only a select number of students. They can’t increase the voucher system to include every student, because most of the good DC public schools, like Wilson, or the private schools like Georgetown Prep, Sidwell or St Albans don’t have the capacity or the facilities to hold all these new students. That’s the fatal flaw with school choice. If you do what you advocate and allow everyone to send their children anywhere you want, you are going to overcrowd the good schools and put a strain on their resources, thereby making them bad schools. Not everyone can go to the school of their choice. There just aren’t the resources to do so. I will there were. The school choice program will only lead to competition amongst to get into the schools at an early age, and I don;t know how good of an idea it is to make 4-5 year old compete to get into schools. And if you think the little guy is going to win out in those battles to get their kids into the best schools, you living in a dream world. Vouchers are a great stop-gap program and they help over a thousands students here. I hope they keep the program. But they aren’t a real solution to the problem, just a band-aid.
That it's run by Democrats, and thus sucks.
Moe Lane Saturday, November 22nd at 2:29AM EST (link)Just like Chicago’s public school system, for the same reason. Which is why the Obamas have always sent their kids to private schools.
Mind you, I don’t blame them.
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Obama is pro-school choice!
Oscar98 Saturday, November 22nd at 9:05AM EST (link)…At least for his kids.
The whole “If you don’t send your kids to public schools, you don’t care” argument seems like a straw man argument to me.
I don’t care where a politician sends their kids to school, and would encourage anyone to exercise choice on that matter. I know I will, whether it’s moving to the right school district, or putting my kids in private school.
What I care about is whether they support school choice through policy. Or just want to keep feeding the sick albatross of state-run schools.
That said, maybe we can “hope” that he’s unlike every other Dem the opposes school choice, and actually prefers it for every American.
Hmm… doubtful.
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http://www.fairtax.org
Whta a crock....
Chance Haywood Saturday, November 22nd at 9:51AM EST (link)I am mystified that you think it requires some special staff for the children of the presidents, sentators and governors to attend non-public school because of the protection they need. You are bloody-freaking-moron. Both of the Bush’s children, while President Bush then governor of Texas, attented Austin High School. That would be a public high school. One even attended a public university.
Some politicians talk the talk, that would be democrats, and some walk the walk… republicans.
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Radiance and Rosebud...
vernonia Saturday, November 22nd at 10:22AM EST (link)…should be homeschooled.
Dave Ramsey in 2012!
If Obama is the ONE then he could make it so...
izoneguy Saturday, November 22nd at 10:23AM EST (link)…his girls could set the shining example BY attending a DC school.
“When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.”
Thomas Jefferson
WOW....
DC71 Saturday, November 22nd at 11:51AM EST (link)The fact that you actually believe that the President’s children don’t need any special protection, that you can just throw them in any school, just shows your ignorance. I can get behind you on Senators, expecially since the DC suburbs have some of the best public schools in the nation. But there is a huge difference between the governor’s kids, and the President’s children. It’s not solely about Protecting them, but it’s about protecting everyone. They could attacked in an attempt to influence the President. How do you not see that? I don’t know much about the public school in Austin, but I have heard that school is a really good one. It is clear though you don’t know anything about DC’s schools either. There is no DC public school that would have been able to handle the security threats the first children would bring to that school.
"More equal than others"
NightTwister Saturday, November 22nd at 12:11PM EST (link)That you have no problem sacrificing the education of some for the benefit of others shows your true colors.
What if those public schools you’re willing to throw on the pile included your own children? Would you be so willing then to sacrifice their education for the benefit of these others?
That you recognize that these good schools are desired by all, yet you’re perfectly fine with only a select few attending them tells me you aren’t really interested in equality at all.
Get Connected in Colorado.
Boom goes the dynamite - n/t
Oscar98 Saturday, November 22nd at 12:41PM EST (link)#
http://www.rlc.org
http://www.fairtax.org
What???
DC71 Saturday, November 22nd at 3:02PM EST (link)I’m not throwing anyone away. I think we need more charter schools, and better run public schools here. I think the voucher program should be extended. But I don’t live in a dream world. I understand that schools only have finite resources. I don’t live in this fantasy world you live in where everyone can go to Sidwell. I think you need solutions that benefit everyone, not just the lucky ones who can get a voucher, or are wealthy enough to send their kids to public school. I don’t understand what your point is. YOu think we should overcrowd good schools, overwhelm teachers and force them to be underfunded? Make the good schools crappy to even out the system? That makes no sense.
Simple.
NightTwister Saturday, November 22nd at 3:18PM EST (link)If school choice were truly available to all, the good schools would increase and the bad schools would be replaced. The number of students in a school does not determine whether or not it is any good.
The current public school system is nothing more than a perpetual bailout scheme. The schools perform poorly, yet the government continues to provide more and more funding.
If instead, the whole thing were to be market-based, where parents had absolute control where their children could go, poor-performing schools would eventually be eliminated altogether.
Get Connected in Colorado.
I disagree
DC71 Saturday, November 22nd at 4:18PM EST (link)I see the point you are making, I just don’t think it’s realistic. It doesn’t work in the short-term. It’s not the size of schools which dictate education value, but capacity that causes issues. Schools, be it public or private, only have a certain capacity. If you go over capacity, you start running into the problem of lack of resources, overcrowding in classrooms, etc. That has been an issue that has plagued schools. Building projects to add onto schools can be very costly. The good schools don’t have the capacity to add on large numbers of new students without hurting their ability to educate. I know it’s not fair….but life isn’t. It’s like health care, you don;t want to destroy the good while trying to help everyone.
Creating new schools is an interesting idea. I like charter schools here. But, there is never any guarantee that these schools are going to be any good. It also takes time and money to create new schools.
You are also ignoring important education factors outside the school. Parental involvement in one. The more involved the parents are, generally the better the school is. Neighborhood logistics is another. Crime (especially drug trade) and poverty have a negative impact on schools as well. School choice doens’t necessarily solve these issues either.
I think improving our educational system requires a lot of work by a lot of different players. Just letting parents pick the school they want their kids to go to won’t necessarily solve many of the issues and could cause a host of others.
The only way "public schools" will be "better run"
mbecker908 Saturday, November 22nd at 4:26PM EST (link)is to eliminate the stranglehold of the NEA and, to a lesser extent, the AFT.
To paraphrase Shakespeare… First Bob, shoot all the educators.
Parents and teachers make for quality schools. “Educators” make for a mess like we’ve got now. As long as the NEA is around and as long as the idiots who run the “education departments” of universities have any say in policy, we’ll continue to have a second rate school system.
Works great here.
NightTwister Saturday, November 22nd at 4:33PM EST (link)We have unlimited school choice in Fort Collins. My kids go to schools across town because they’re the best in town. We only have one school in town where “choice” is locked out because they’re full (the High School in my neighborhood). It isn’t a factor for me because there are better schools in town.
As for your overcrowding issue, it’s a non-issue. With each new student comes funding for that student. That money can be used to hire more teachers, build new classrooms, etc. It works fine in the private sector (private schools) and with charter schools.
The biggest problem is the bureaucracy. Eliminate the federal Department of Education. Eliminate most of the State Education structure. Give that money back to the local school districts. Pass legislation making school choice mandatory. This is what needs to happen to turn the schools around again.
Parental involvement needs to be at the design level, not the implementation level.
Get Connected in Colorado.
That's great....
DC71 Saturday, November 22nd at 4:52PM EST (link)I’m happy to hear it works in Fort Collins. I see this program working ok in smaller cities. It’s more difficult in DC. It’s a lot harder to expand facilities here than in Fort Collins. Land is at a premium here, and most of the DC schools are crowded by their neighborhoods. It’s very expensive to get addition land and to build. I see what you are saying. It’s just extremely costly here to expand capacity. My father worked on a BofE at my high school when they were doing a building project. I grew up in a small town, and even then it cost millions for expand the school by a small bit. The addition money you get for each student here in DC, after covering the basic needs of the students won;t be enough to cover an expansion in facilities.
Nice talking to you about this. I enjoy learning more about this topic, hence why I’m here on Redstate. I just haven’t been convinced that it’d be practical to do here.
To Kowalski...
mbecker908 Saturday, November 22nd at 4:58PM EST (link)From Victor Davis Hanson, probably the premier commentator on culture writing today…
Highlighting is mine. Read the whole article, it’s an education unto itself.