Obama's School Choice

It's now common knowledge that Barack Obama sends his kids to private school—specifically, the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, one of the nation's leading independent schools (and, in the interests of full disclosure, one of my own alma maters). Some pundits have criticized this choice as being hypocritical since Obama favors reforming public schools and opposes school vouchers that would allow parents who might not have the wherewithal to send their children to private schools to make that same choice.

Although this criticism may seem well founded, it confuses the personal with the political, and individual circumstances with overarching ideals. The school choices we make for our children may not necessarily be the ones we would make in a perfect world—rather, they are the ones we make given a host of factors: each child's unique personality and needs at a particular developmental stage, the quality of public and private schools in our community, the amount we can afford to pay for education, and so on.

It is true that some parents have more choices than others, simply by virtue of their financial and educational circumstances. But this doesn't mean that less well-off or educated parents have no choice and are inevitably forced to send their children to crowded, poorly performing public schools.

Nor does it mean that private schools are always better than public schools or that private school is the default best choice. School vouchers are a short-term solution to a long-term problem. Sending one's child to a good private school—with or without financial aid—in a community with relatively poor public schools, while simultaneously supporting the reform of public schools and opposing school vouchers, is a realistic, rational, and, perhaps most important, individual parental position.

Whatever our political persuasion on this issue, though, today is an opportunity to make our feelings known. Only by voting will there be any chance of improving the status quo.