The last presidential kid to attend public schools was Amy Carter

[Stinky The Clown]

Just a little factoid.

Today she lives quietly in Atlanta with her husband and son and serves on the board of the Carter Center.

Did you know that when she got married, she did not allow her father to give her away, saying no person should belong to another. He parents were okay with that.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. And security for her was a nightmare

I don't blame Obama for not putting his kids in a public school. I remember Amy Carter's experiences. And 35 years later, the president and his family receive even more threats.

I'm saying this as a proud teacher in public schools for 3 decades. And I am opposed to just about every bit of Obama's education policies. But he should be able to enroll his own children in a school where they are safe.

[Stinky The Clown]

3. How did we get right to Obama?

Not everything is about him.

(To be honest, the inspiration for this post was the upcoming nuptials and the realization that all those kids, in some ways, have it harder than most of us.)

[proud2BlibKansan]

5. Well, in case you hadn't noticed, Obama is being criticized

for not enrolling his daughters in a public school.

But I agree with you about these kids. Their lives are not at all easy.

[Stinky The Clown]

14. To be honest, I hadn't noticed that lately

I know that was the case when he first got here, but hadn't heard it lately.

[proud2BlibKansan]

17. Come hang out over in the Education forum

:)

[asdjrocky]

2. Public school is not for them.

The rich are of a different station than the rest of us, they come from a whole different place.

It would undoubtedly be a bad idea to mix the two classes of people, it would only lead to confussion and resentment among the lower class people.

Get real clown.

[Warpy]

15. The Obamas aren't rich, they're upper middle class

although that looks like rich to those of us who have spent most of our lives scraping bottom.

Obama is the target of every racist jackass in this country. His kids are also targets since the security around him is so incredibly tight. If those kids went to public school, they would be at unacceptable risk.

I have no problem with his putting them in a private school where security can be managed better. I am delighted his salary allows him to do that.

[asdjrocky]

19. Don't worry.

Within a year or too of leaving the whitehouse they will be filthy rich, just like the Clintons.

[Warpy]

26. Undoubtedly

and for the same reason. The man is capable of talking, which means a lucrative career on the speaker's circuit.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

21. a net worth of approximately $5million makes him rich

by nearly any measure...

sP

[Starbucks Anarchist]

32. They're recently rich.

It's not like the Obamas lived in the lap of luxury for decades.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

33. rich is rich...

doesn't matter when you got the money...you're still rich.

sP

[FBaggins]

22. What's your cutoff for "rich" ???

Their recent tax returns are in the multiple millions... even prior to being in the WH they made at least half a million dollars a year (2006 was nearly a million).

I'm not saying they didn't earn/deserve it... but most people would consider that pretty wealthy.

[Warpy]

25. To access the network of private infrastructure

of private airports, hospital VIP wings, shopping coming to you instead of having you make the effort (or sending employees to do your bidding at Sotheby's), and the network of houses of acquaintances that can be used as private hotels, the minimum entrance fee is about 10 million, and at that one is treated like a poor relation and goes into debt trying to keep up with the people who own ten or a hundred times as much.

The truly rich in this country are invisible and rarely contact anyone outside the club, which is the way they want it. Warren Buffett is the one glaring example, still living in his upper middle class house he bought when he was much younger.

While the Obamas are in the upper reaches of the upper middle class thanks to book royalties, they aint there yet.

[FBaggins]

39. "upper middle class" is not defined by the fact

that someone somewhere makes more money than you do.

Multiple years of seven figure salaries qualifies one as "rich" by any reasonable standard.

And their net worth is almost certainly over ten million unless they are incredibly irresponsible with their financial planning.

While the old definition (having a million dollars) has certainly fallen to the upper middle class, most sociologists define the rich as the wealthiest 1% of the country (our party certainly uses that as a proxy for "rich" quite frequently). By income that's somewhere in the $400-500k/yr range... and the President and First Lady have most certainly exceeded that level for some time now.

[stray cat]

4. The public schools the WH would attend are the better ones - not all neighborhood schools are equal

lets see who would actually send their children to the schools in the poor districts of DC

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. Stevens Elementary School and Hardy Middle School

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Carter

Hardy Middle School
1819 35th Street, NW

Stevens Elementary School
1050 21st Street Northwest

The elementary school is a mile from the WH. Middle school is 2.7 miles. So yes, these likely are the neighborhood schools for the WH.

edit to answer your question - People who live in those neighborhoods would send their kids to the schools serving poor neighborhoods. :eyes:

[stray cat]

11. The swanky wealthy side of town - at least the description of the neighborhood

[proud2BlibKansan]

13. Still her neighborhood school

Should she have traveled across town to a school serving low income kids? To make a political point?

[Laughing Mirror]

27. Those were not swanky schools back in the 1970's by a long shot

I went to DC public schools a few years before, so I paid attention to those things.

I don't know what it's like today, 35 years later, but back then in the 1970s, the number of white well-to-do students at Amy's DC public schools you could count on one hand, and still have a few fingers left over. Hardy was in Georgetown and Georgetown school bused in black students from crowded low-income neighborhoods east of Rock Creek Park, otherwise there were not enough neighborhood wealthy students (white) from Georgetown to keep those schools open. All the Georgetown kids went to private schools. Such as the ones where Obama's children are going. Where is it, Sidwell Friends?

And as for her elementary school, Stevens, back then there was still a sizeable low-income black population in the residential areas to the north of the school (below P Street and east of Dupont Circle) and those were the children who went to Stevens, including Amy Carter, who lived a few blocks down Pennsylvania Avenue. Stevens was in no way an exclusive elementary school catering to the upper crust. The upper crust did not send its children to DC public schools.

It was mostly low-income inner city black students that Amy Carter went to school with in DC in the 1970s. I used to work right around the corner from Stevens Elementary. You could see the school playground from the street, and a few times I would go by the school on the sidewalk and see Amy playing out there with the other kids. She seemed to be enjoying herself at recreation like all the others. And it wasn't hard to pick her out from the other children, because hers was the only white face. Although there might have been an Asian boy or girl, bused over past the White House from Chinatown.

[Recursion]

37. DC has an odd half-open-enrollment system

Basically, there are neighborhood schools (eg, Ballou) and magnet schools (eg, School Without Walls), but no school is attended purely based on location or a first-come first-serve enrollment process with a lottery; it's more of a continuum (I picked those two because Walls is probably the closest to a true lottery-chosen magnet and Ballou is probably closest to a true local neighborhood school). There's a lot of politicking and wrangling among parents and administrators about who goes to the good schools and who doesn't go to the bad ones. Basically, you'll see kids from Anacostia (the bad neighborhood) at School Without Walls or Wilson, but you won't see kids from the Palisades (a VERY rich neighborhood in extreme west DC) in Anacostia.

Oddly enough, one of DC's public schools is in Laurel, MD. I still don't quite get that.

In the hypothetical where the Obama children went to public schools, they would probably go to a magnet or one of the better charters (DC has some very good charter schools, which are public schools that are not under the direct operational control of the chancellor).

When I lived there I tutored at Cardozo, which is pretty much an "average" DC school. Booker T. Washington (one of the "good" charters) opened up pretty close by and poached a lot of the good students, but not enough to seriously damage Cardozo.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. You changed your post

Yes, Amy did attend her neighborhood school.

[Motown_Johnny]

6. no surprise considering the gutting of public education that went on under Reagan

[TBF]

7. And continues under Arne Duncan. nt

[stray cat]

9. Survey of DC public schools

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/metro/interactives/dcschools/

[Stinky The Clown]

18. A little something to keep in mind as we read this sort of story: DC is not an independent city.

The feds control it. They pay taxes and have almost no vote. They are more populous than a number of states that have two senators each. The Congress gets to fuck with their annual budget. Being majority black, DC has been likened to a plantation, a criticism not without at least a modicum of merit.

Yes, their schools are crumbling. The question is, who deserves the blame?

[Book Lover]

28. Well said and worth reminding people of these facts (nm)

[Recursion]

23. DC public schools are safer and better-performing today than in the 70's

You wouldn't guess that from the media reports, though...

[Laughing Mirror]

29. Keep in mind that the DC public school system has a third of the students today than back then

I think it's been winnowed down to something in the neighborhood of around 46,000 students, the last time I checked. Whereas it had to have been in the range of 150,000+ back in the 70s. City had been losing population but still had 100,000 more people than today, and there was citywide little to no gentrification, while there was still overcrowding in some of the schools. And then the black middle class started to leave the city, and public school enrollment went down more.

But down now to under 50,000?

[SoCalDem]

10. pubic?

:rofl:

[Stinky The Clown]

16. Fixed.

Thanks for noticing.

[Lurks Often]

20. I have ZERO problems with children of Presidents of either party

being schooled privately. Not only is it safer for the President's children, it is also safer for the REST of the children in the public schools.

If a President's children were in a public school and a person or an organization were to make an attempt to kidnap or kill them, the resulting shoot out between the Secret Service and the person or an organization attacking the children would almost certainly result in innocent children being wounded or killed.

[Orsino]

31. You may be quite right to consider the safety issue...

...but the only certainty, I fear, is that it makes presidents a permanent part of the ruling class.

[MicaelS]

35. Agree 100% n/t

[ProgressiveProfessor]

24. Its probably better that way...

The security required is disruptive. Could you imagine your typical urban high school crawling with Secret Service agents?

[mayya]

30. Does any DC politician have their kids in public school?

Chances are about 0%, unless it is a political stunt. Public schools are for us peasants.

[Recursion]

34. Umm the Mayor and the entire Council does

And the Mayor went to DC public schools.

Scratch that... I think one of the Vincents (DC has a Vincent Orange and a Vincent Gray in the government) has a kid in Catholic school.

[HipChick]

46. Fenty only sent them there last year...

after great pressure he was forced to switch them from their private school..

[madinmaryland]

36. Interesting, but not relevant, Stinky.

You should know that there was no Fox Noise or any of the organized hate machine that we see today. Let's face it, when your worst vocal opponent is William F. Buckley, you are not going to have the armed haters trying to take over the government.

I understand damn well why the Clinton's and Obama's had their children enrolled in private schools. It is much easier security scenario if they are in a private school as compared to a public school. Imagine the logistical nightmare for the public schools if they were to be enrolled in a public school after Rush Limbaugh had suggested that they needed to be lynched. Then you would probably have been pontificating about why they were not in private schools.

I actually feel a lot of sympathy for the girls, that they essentially have to live in a bubble through their most impressionable years (I have a daughter the same approx age as the Obamas do).

I place the ENTIRE blame on the RIGHT WING HATE MACHINE. Not the Clintons, not the Obamas, and not even the Bush's. When was the last time you heard someone on our side of the aisle advocating for violence towards those in government. Impeachment YES, but never violence.

[Stinky The Clown]

40. It wasn't intended to be "relevant". It was a "sigh . . . too bad" kind of post.

Amy Carter could go to public schools (even with the required security). No presidential kid since then could have done it.

As I said upthread, not every post is about Obama. This was one of them. Some of us think about other things.

[madinmaryland]

42. Sorry, Stinky. I guess I have been reading too many of your threads.

Also, there was really nothing in your post to lead me to believe that this was something about the climate of the political and news world rather than it being a shot at the Obamas and Clintons.

Sorry.

[FBaggins]

47. I don't think that "could have done" is correct.

Keep in mind that most presidents' are old enough (by the time they get to the WH) that their kids aren't school age to begin with. It isn't as if there have been many opportunities.

Since Carter... Reagan's kids were all through college... as were the kids of Bush I... BushII's daughters had just graduated (and did attend public schools IIRC)... leaving only the Clintons and Obamas. You have to go back to the Kennedy family to find another president with school-age kids.

Hardly a statistically significant sampling.

[Jakes Progress]

38. Wasn't Clinton the last president to attend public schools?

[Stinky The Clown]

41. I have no idea. This thread was about presidential kids, not the presidents themselves.

[Jakes Progress]

44. I know. I get your point. I was just asking.

It was just a thought that came to me when I read your post.

[mentalsolstice]

48. No

I think Chelsea attended the same school as Malia and Sasha, and that was a deciding factor because of security and all. I have been around Secret Service when the POTUS and his family were on the move, and it's very complicated. A lot of people, republicans and democrats, don't realize how much freedom these (so far) men and their families give up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidwell_Friends_School

efg

[Jakes Progress]

49. I don't understand your post in reference to mine.

I asked if Bill Clinton was the last president to attend public schools. What has Chelsea got to do with that?

It was just a question that occurred to me when I read the OP.

[SheilaT]

43. The other thing to think about

is how few Presidents have school-age kids while they're in the White House.

Caroline Kennedy was being educated with a few other kids in the White House itself. No public school for her.

Eisenhower, Truman, FDR, Nixon, and both Bushes did not have school age children. Luci Baines Johnson, LBJ's younger daughter would have been in high school when he became President. I doubt she attended public school. Susan Ford, Gerald Ford's daughter attended a private school.

It's actually quite remarkable that the Carters sent Amy to public school. I was living in the DC area during the Carter Presidency, and I recall a general sense of astonishment that they did so.

[FourScore]

45. I understand that she also made her own wedding cake

and she did a pot luck with her friends for the reception.