Obama’s Elitism Prevents Him from Subjecting His Children to Public Schools

Here’s a thought:  If the politicians in D.C. want to play games and control our education system, then they should be forced to enroll their own children into public schools.  That way, they will be better informed and work more effectively to address the failures of government run public schools:

Obama: D.C. schools don’t suit daughters
‘Struggling’ system falls short
By Deborah Simmons – The Washington Times

In a rare and blunt criticism of education in the nation’s capital, President Obama on Monday called D.C. Public Schools a “struggling” system that doesn’t measure up to the needs of first daughters Sasha and Malia.

The president’s remarks came one day after Education Secretary Arne Duncan also got publicly involved in matters related to D.C. schools, stating his latest praise for embattled D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee.

[…]

During his interview Monday on NBC’s “Today” show, Mr. Obama was asked by a viewer whether his girls “would get the same high-quality, rigorous education in a D.C. public school as compared” with what they receive at Sidwell Friends, a private school in the city.

Mr. Obama replied, “The answer is ‘no’ right now. The D.C. public school systems are struggling,” though “they have made some important strides over the last several years to move in the right direction of reform.”

[…]

“We can’t spend our way out of it … our per-pupil spending has gone up over the last couple of decades, even as results have gone down,” Mr. Obama said, adding that we have to “identify teachers who are subpar [and] give them the opportunity to get better. But if they don’t get better at a certain point … these teachers should not be in the classroom.”

The president, who was elected with considerable support from teachers unions and others in organized labor, even gently criticized the zeal with which teachers unions have protected their members, though he said he supported the basic right to organize and the protections it guarantees.

“Oftentimes teachers unions are designed to make sure that their membership are protected against arbitrary firings … what is also true is that sometimes that means they are resistant to change when things aren’t working,” Mr. Obama said.

[Quite a conundrum there, Mr. Obama.  Since the commie unions—which you overwhelmingly support—are the number one reason that so many “subpar” teachers are permanently ensconced in the public indoctrination system, I seriously doubt you will actually do anything to identify and remove said “subpar” teachers.]

Mr. Obama said that while there are good public schools in every big-city system, there aren’t enough and that this produces heart-rending scenes of lotteries doling out the few spots in high-performing schools to poorer and minority children trapped in dropout factories.

“A lot of times you’ve got to test in, or it’s a lottery pick for you to be able to get into those schools. And so those options are not available for enough children,” he said, before getting personal again.

“I’ll be very honest with you. Given my position, if I wanted to find a great public school for Malia and Sasha to be in, we could probably maneuver to do it. But the broader problem is [doing the same] for a mom or a dad who are working hard but don’t have a bunch of connections, don’t have a lot of choice in terms of where they live. … And we don’t have that yet.”

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