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Obamas Choose Sidwell Friends School for Daughters
Wall Street Journal ^ | 11/21/08 | Brad Haynes

Posted on 11/21/2008 5:11:02 PM PST by Elvina

Clinton, Daschle, Geithner… The big-name speculation over President-elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet appointments can wait while Obama watchers focus on another critical name that surfaced on Friday: Sidwell.

The Associated Press is reporting that the Obamas have chosen the Sidwell Friends School in Washington for daughters Sasha, seven years old, and Malia, 10. The private Quaker school’s alumni include former presidential offspring Chelsea Clinton and Tricia Nixon Cox, as well as House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and a former princess of Japan.

Sidwell Friends beat out another elite school, Georgetown Day School. Michelle Obama and her daughters reportedly visited both schools on Tuesday. Sidwell, with campuses in Northwest Washington and Bethesda, Md., is home to nearly 1,100 students from pre-Kindergarten to 12th grade. Tuition at the lower school is $28,442 and $29,442 at the middle and upper schools.

A spokeswoman for Michelle Obama was quoted by AP as saying the Obamas feel Sidwell provides “the best fit for what their daughters need now,” including being able to accommodate security and privacy concerns. The Obama girls have also become good friends with Vice President-elect Joe Biden’s grandchildren, who attend the school.

The Obama family also discussed public school options for the girls, according to Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty. The girls currently attend the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools located in Chicago’s South Side.

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: District of Columbia; US: Maryland
KEYWORDS: bho2008; education; nobama; obama; obamafamily; obamatransitionfile; privateschools; publikskools; quakers; sidwellfriends
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To: ml/nj
My guess is that Obama pays school taxes too. And you're special because?

Um, I didn't say I was special. I don't go around confiscating people's hard-earned money. I don't advocate federal control of schools. I think BHO, myself, and all taxpayers should both be able to get vouchers to send their kids to private schools. BHO doesn't think that. That is why he is being judged to a higher standard.

61 posted on 11/21/2008 5:55:14 PM PST by Elvina (BHO is double plus ungood.)
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To: Mr. Blonde

“The last think I would want to hear about is one of them getting shanked before 4th period.”

Yeah - lets just leave that to the kids we never read about.

Same goes for Health Care in another three years. I sure wouldn’t want to hear about Obama’s kids having to wait months on end for any surgeries - so hopefully there will still be private hospitals somewhere - at least for those deemed fitting of such services.


62 posted on 11/21/2008 5:55:14 PM PST by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant, Never Fearful)
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To: hinckley buzzard

“I had to laugh the other day when a drive-by whore reported that Washington was asking... whether Obamas would send their kids to a private or a public school.
As if.”

Yeah, sure. LOL!
Didn’t we all know (here at FR), what the choice would be?


63 posted on 11/21/2008 5:55:54 PM PST by toldyou (Even if the voices aren't real they have some pretty good ideas.)
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To: Mr. Blonde

You are right, it wouldn’t be a good idea. That is why some of us are mocking the Obamas’ contention that they ever considered D.C. public schools for their girls. What frauds and phonies.


64 posted on 11/21/2008 5:55:57 PM PST by Cecily
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To: Elvina

Laboratory School?????


65 posted on 11/21/2008 5:58:24 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote.)
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To: Elvina
It is when someone like BHO who is in bed with the teacher's unions and opposes school vouchers and choice does this that I have a problem. Don't even get me started.

From the NY Sun (hardly a liberal rag):

Obama Open to Private School Vouchers

Senator Obama said this week that he is open to supporting private school vouchers if research shows they work.

"I will not allow my predispositions to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn," Mr. Obama, who has previously said he opposes vouchers, said in a meeting with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "We're losing several generations of kids, and something has to be done."

Education analysts said Mr. Obama's statement is the closest they have ever seen a Democratic presidential candidate come to embracing the idea of vouchers. Vouchers are taxpayer-funded scholarships that allow families to opt out of public school and use their government-allotted education dollars to attend a private school instead. They are despised by teachers unions, powerful players in Democratic politics.

Look! I don't even think the guy's Constitutionally eligible to be President. There's lots to oppose this guy on, but where he sends his young daughters to school is not it. It's very sad to me when FReepers whine like liberals.

ML/NJ

66 posted on 11/21/2008 5:59:13 PM PST by ml/nj
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To: giotto
Big deal. All bets are off when it comes to one’s children. I don’t blame the Obamas for wanting their kids to be in a safe environment.

I agree 100%. The snob exhibited some brains in this decision.

67 posted on 11/21/2008 6:01:27 PM PST by manapua
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To: bricklayer

oh man that was soo mean!


68 posted on 11/21/2008 6:01:32 PM PST by rahbert
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To: LibFreeOrDie

Ooooh - checked it out. Now I see why they picked it!!!! For some reason I didn’t think the Quakers were so... well liberal! Students can reflect on their disbeliefs!!!! Huh???

For some reason I pictured the Quakers as some pseudo-Catholic like - paddle wielding - strict - nunnery type school. I’m thinking about how I was taught the Quakers were from in my history books.

Whooo that was an eye opener!!!


69 posted on 11/21/2008 6:03:20 PM PST by HomeschoolMomma (No thanks...I already have a Messiah!)
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To: Elvina

Yeah, the school is kinda liberal, but what do you expect? It’s an excellent school and I’m happy that his daughters won’t be mugged at a public school.


70 posted on 11/21/2008 6:04:15 PM PST by NinoFan
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To: 21twelve

And what do you propose to do to protect the “kids we never read about”? A lot of those kids would still be there with full school choice. Or perhaps in a worse scenario they bring that behavior to schools like the one the Obama’s will be attending.


71 posted on 11/21/2008 6:04:19 PM PST by Mr. Blonde (You ever thought about being weird for a living?)
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To: Elvina
See my post at #66. Don't be a jerk.

ML/NJ

72 posted on 11/21/2008 6:04:42 PM PST by ml/nj
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To: HomeschoolMomma
Don't bet on it. There are traditional Quakers, and then there are the "quakers" that spend more time worshipping "peace" and promoting communism than worshipping God.

Back in 1917 communists made a move to infiltrate the Quakers via an organization called American Friends Service Committee [AFSC.] This group may once have had pure motives but it wasn't long before it was taken over and after that the media began treating it as if it was mainstream and representative of the Quaker faith. But it is to Quakerism what CAIR is to Islam or what the IRA is to Catholicism. There is no leftwing movement or thug the AFSC will not support- Viet Cong, PLO, Pol Pot, Sandinistas, various African thugs, Castro, CPUSA... their belief is the US is the root of the problem and US militarism must be defused for there to be peace.

Google AFSC and Sidwell Friends.

73 posted on 11/21/2008 6:07:40 PM PST by piasa (How's that change workin' for ya?)
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To: Elvina
Ms. Clintoon approved, running the president out of the state department, beats the bed room.
74 posted on 11/21/2008 6:09:09 PM PST by org.whodat (Conservatives don't vote for Bailouts! Republicans do!)
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To: hinckley buzzard

I’m from DC and went to a Catholic, high end, prep school for girls. Anyone who has any spare change, and this includes DC public school teachers (and I grew up around plenty), sends their kids to private school. It’s just an issue of how much tuition you can afford.

Friends is a great school and I’m sure the Obama girls will enjoy their time there. That said, it’s too bad their father doesn’t believe in school choice for anyone else.


75 posted on 11/21/2008 6:09:35 PM PST by radiohead (Buy ammo, get your kids out of government schools, pray for the Republic.)
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To: Elvina

Their children mustn’t rub elbows with those — UGH! — dirty DC black people, you know...


76 posted on 11/21/2008 6:09:37 PM PST by pabianice
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To: ml/nj
See my post at #66. Don't be a jerk.

I read your post. You cannot say that Obama is pro-vouchers any more than you can say John Kerry was pro-war in 2004. Obama changed his position several times, but in the end he will follow the NEA position and has more often opposed vouchers than he has expressed any lukewarm, half-hearted support for them. In the third presidential debate he said he was against vouchers. I fail to see why you feel a need to sink to the level of personal attack against me.

77 posted on 11/21/2008 6:09:45 PM PST by Elvina (BHO is double plus ungood.)
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To: SallyH

Maybe they chose Sidwell instead because Hillary told them to do it. It is where Chelsea went.


78 posted on 11/21/2008 6:10:17 PM PST by Jane Austen (Boycott the Bahamas!)
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To: Elvina

What was Bawney Fwank doing in the boy’s room?


79 posted on 11/21/2008 6:12:00 PM PST by beethovenfan (If Islam is the solution, the "problem" must be freedom.)
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To: Elvina
We need to get the Government out of the Schoolin Business.

At least the Obama's are willing to pay for their children's education and are not demanding a Government handout.

80 posted on 11/21/2008 6:13:36 PM PST by Doe Eyes
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