President-elect Barack Obama’s choice of elementary school for his two daughters will give that school bragging rights, and it could point to practical details of an education policy that on the campaign trail offered something for everybody.
Though his daughters attend a private school in Chicago, Obama has long supported charter schools, and at a September event promised to double their federal funding. He pleased teacher unions by backing bigger paychecks and accountability based on more than test scores. He even stretched to the right last February with tepid support for school vouchers.
D.C. schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee said she has provided information to the Obamas about public school options, but she wouldn’t be disappointed if they choose a private school. The consequence to public schools of Obama choosing a private placement, she said, would be “absolutely none.”
“We’d like, ideally, to know that the new administration will support the basic tenets of No Child Left Behind that myself and superintendents around the country believe are most beneficial to affect systemic change,” Rhee said.
Paradoxically, the family’s choice of a private school could help steer Obama’s thoughts on public funding.
Two private schools of interest to the Obamas – Georgetown Day School and Sidwell Friends – participate in D.C.’s Opportunity Scholarship Program. The federally funded program offers up to $7,500 per child each year to attend private schools in the District. Maret School, another Obama option, does not accept the vouchers.
The program was funded by Congress in 2003 as a five-year pilot program and is up for an uncertain renewal in early 2009.
“If Obama does choose a private school, especially one that has kids receiving a D.C. voucher, it’d be hard for him to ignore that the voucher program is going to die this coming year,” said Neal McCluskey, associate director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom.
“And if it’s hard to ignore, he might have to continue to support it,” McCluskey said. “It’d be relatively easy for people to portray him as hypocritical and coldhearted if he’d let this lifeline be pulled away from other kids when the school is good for his own kids.”
Bonnie Cullison, president of one of the country’s largest teacher unions in voucher-averse Montgomery County, Md., said vouchers are “only working for middle class people who have the wherewithal to supplement what the voucher is.” The city’s top private schools cost upward of $25,000 per student.
“It seems Obama would want to put the funds back into the public schools so all kids can be as successful as his,” Cullison said.
Joe Williams, executive director of Democrats for Education Reform, said Obama’s long-standing support for charters hints at his most likely area for action.
“His pledge to double spending for charters is realistic to pull off,” Williams said, explaining it wouldn’t need to be tied to No Child Left Behind, and it would be a minimal amount of money.
“It wouldn’t be unleashing a revolution,” Williams said. “It wouldn’t be a big ask.”
