Replies

PONCE: Thank you. Let's move to the question of education. Mr. Obama, you've said that you consider education as the most important civil rights issue facing America today. Currently, your children are in private schools. If you're elected to the Senate, will you send them to public schools?
OBAMA: Well, my children currently go to the lab school at the University of Chicago where I teach, and my wife works, and we get a good deal for it. But, so-- (laughter, applause)
OBAMA: --it depends on whether we move or not. And that, obviously, hinges on the election and what's gonna happen. We're gonna choose the best possible education for our children [IOW, an upper class neighborhood or private school], as I suspect all parents are gonna try to do. And that's part of the reason why, consistently when I've been in the state legislature, I've tried to promote those kinds of reforms that would improve what I think is an inadequate performance by too many public schools, all across the state.
PONCE: But you're against vouchers, as a senator.
OBAMA: I am.
PONCE: You have the means, to have a choice--
OBAMA: Absolutely.
PONCE: --for your children. What about the families that don't have the means? Is it fair for them--
OBAMA: What they--no--
PONCE: --not to have a choice?
OBAMA: --what they need is more money in their pockets.

And that's why I've supported programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit, that provides tax relief to low-income families, so that they can use that money any way that they want, including sending their kids into private schools.

IOW, FU. He has a nice way of saying it, but even the hand-picked audience wasn't buying what he was selling.

The sad thing is, in order to win election to office by gaining the support of the teachers union, he's willing to condemn millions of children to 12 years of misery. What a guy.