Keep an eye on a subtle trend in the voucher debate. Past presidents (think President Clinton) took political heat over where they sent their children to school and their school choice positions. But President Obama is facing a slightly different and even more personal issue — his own education.
Over the past few months the school voucher crowd has turned up the heat on President Obama over the D.C. voucher program, which Congress is in the process of ending. For instance Derrell Bradford discusses Obama’s own education here (pdf) and Kevin Chavous and Anthony Williams do the same in the WaPo. The tactics have not gone unnoticed at The White House and are causing consernation among Obama allies.
Substantively it’s unclear (and seems doubtful) if any of this will have an effect on the fate of the D.C. voucher program. Politically, however, it’s worth watching going forward – especially after Race to the Top stops sucking up all the oxygen in the education debate and gravity is restored for the last few years of Obama’s first term.
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