It's in Their Self Interest to Go Public

On the Obamas' options for DC private schools, Achenbach opines:

They cost about $300,000 a year once you include the auction items. To attend a DC private school, you must not only pay tuition, but also must buy auction tickets and then go to the auction and spend thousands of dollars to prove to the other parents that you are committed to the school and also, by the way, loaded. There is an auction every weekend: the big school auction, the crew team auction, the field hockey team auction, the chess team auction, the particle accelerator fund drive auction, and so on. Any self-respecting DC private school wants to have at least as much money on hand as, and a science building equal to that of, Princeton.

The Obamas are supposedly fairly wealthy, but eight years of private school will fix that.

The Obamas are also going to take a huge pay cut. Sure, he'll make more, getting bumped from a senator's salary to that of a president, but he won't have time to write those bestselling books. Worse, she's not going to make a thing. The first lady is forced to work around the clock for no pay. She's technically a volunteer in the White House.

She'll be borrowing money from her staffers. She'll turn to her social secretary and say, "I'm going to the squash team auction tonight -- can I borrow two thousand dollars?"