A Hillary-backer makes the case that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden are elitists who deserted a public school system that needs parents like them. Ms. Tsing-Loh — a self-described PTA secretary in Los Angeles — laments that the Obamas and Bidens have chosen to send their kids to expensive private schools, when their presence in the troubled public schools could be an important part of making those schools better:
…Research done by Richard Kahlenberg, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, indicates that poor children benefit hugely by mixing, daily, with middle-class children (particularly those from families who value education). Conversely, as long as the deleterious effects of poverty, like rampant absenteeism and serious health issues, do not overwhelm the school culture, middle-class children suffer no ill effects… So it is with huge grief-filled disappointment that I discovered that the Obamas send their children to the University of Chicago Laboratory School (by 5th grade, tuition equals $20,286 a year). The school’s Web site quotes all that ridiculous John Dewey nonsense about developing character while, of course, isolating your children from the poor… And yes, I know I appear to be ranting on like a pit bull without lipstick, which brings me to the final nail in the coffin in this sorry election year. As a Democrat I am horrified that Sarah Palin is the one who snagged the deeply profound – and absolutely ignored by professional smart people – emotional real estate of “P.T.A. mother.” I too am, in fact, not just “my kids’ mom” but their Title I Los Angeles public school P.T.A. secretary. This unheard female howl is, for better or worse, what Ms. Palin has set out to tap into; it is real, and I am sick that we’ve let the Republicans charge this ground. Sarah Palin’s children went to what looks like a humble little public school: Iditarod Elementary on Wasilla Fishhook Road. The school’s score on www.greatschools.net is a 4. That’s a lot of street cred, for a gun-totin’, snow-mobilin’ creationist-lovin’ lady.
To be fair, Ms. Tsing-Loh notes that McCain sent his kids to private schools as well — so from this point of view at least, he’s no better than Obama and Biden. However, here’s another Hillary-backing feminist who finds something important to like about Sarah Palin.
