Tom Toles for September 29, 2010

http://tinyurl.com/2cad5qt

Wht not? John Quincy Adams was our president and his father.

^I think the issue is that the president’s children don’t attend the DC public schools. And why not? My guess is because those schools are really bad.

Here’s the paradox: If you have wealth and power, do you send your kids to school with the poor kids to be in solidarity with them? Or do you do what every other wealthy, powerful person is doing and send them to the private school? It’s fun to laugh at Obama’s hypocrisy for sending his kids to private school, but don’t do so unless you would do it differently.

Another issue is security. It may be that a president’s child can be better secured in a private school.

jack75287

That never happened.

Every pres’ kid gets sent to Sitwell Friends, a private scool in DC. The worst behaved Pres. kids, by a mile, where W’s daughters.

If it was a Republican president, you could hear someone scream “class envy” by now.

Jack:It really sounds like Bush bashing but it’s not; Toles is just arguing that if the public system is good enough for regular kids, it should be good enough for Obama’s kids. With the obvious implication that he should improve the schools because they suck @$$.

I say he should do it, and then switch them to the health plan that’s good enough for those other kids too.

I don’t know, personally, how bad DC public schools are… but I do know that not all public schools are created equal… and that given the chance to redo my education where I went to High School, there are some I would not go to if I could help it.

My kids are in parochial school, which is sort of the third option - because no one would question a president who wanted to put his kids in religious school (though perhaps they should!). jack, I never heard that Amy Carter was sleeping with Abby Hoffman, though she was (and is) a serious activist. Are you sure about that, or is that just a rumor?

charliekane, I agree. Security has got to be a huge issue.

MM, Jack is spewing false rumors. Usually he does this about politics, but this time it’s about a president’s innocent kid. I suppose it’s a lame attempt to make a political point about Carter, I guess.

Abby Hoffman was a stone cold cool guy.

http://tinyurl.com/yag9d6f

We shouldn’t be taking jabs at Carter. His role as a former president is probably superior to that of other [former] presidents! (I know that I can’t argue with that. What did Reagan, Ford, Nixon, Clinton, Bush I or Bush II do after they left office?)

jack75287,

You’re missing the point.

DC schools are supervised by an independent school board, most of whom probably belong in jail.

Toles frequently comments on local conditions in Washington, DC, where he lives.

ssejhill: the answer is kept their mouths shut (except of course for Clinton).

ARodney, don’t forget that she and Abby Hoffman and 13 others were tried in court. At that time, Hoffman was described as Amy’s mentor.

There have been headlines because the Newark NJ public schools were just given $100M in stock. It is not widely discussed but even before this gift Newark was spending $22,000/student/year.

The educational results are horrendous. For comparable results see DC, Detroit etc. Of course Obama being a loving father sends his children to Sidwell. i would have no respect for him if he didn’t.

I was fortunate to be able to send my children to public school but i ran and was elected to the school board to be able to push for excellence.

BTW, don’t fall for the funding BS line thrown out by defenders. For $22,000 you should be able to give every child a very decent education.

I don’t blame him, DC schools suck. People who can afford it send their kids to private schools.

The Secret Service has a lot more to do with picking schools for the offspring than first families. Security IS priority, and has gotten spookier, year by year. The whacked out comments out in the “blogosphere” do not create any sense of security in the security community.

^ To righties, all arts are liberal endoctrinment anyways.

The point is that not all kids can be a president’s kid.

That’s two kids…

The president has no control over the D.C. public schools. They’re run by the local school board, elected by local citizens.

What has Clinton done? Well, he’s traveled the world promoting all sorts of charitable causes, and made a little side trip to N. Korea to retrieve two US citizens.

Carter has really excelled at doing public service as an ex-president. Clinton has, too, and he may surpass Carter if he keeps it up.