She Does It for the Children, You Know

Every time an elected official chooses to send their kid to private school one-time unelected official Kay Brooks starts beating her tom-tom for school "choice" (which is just another term for publically subsidizing and/or bailing out the private school industry).  She has this penchant for using other people's kids (unless they're Republicans) as weapons against them, and she behaves no differently now that the President Elect and our new First Lady have chosen to send their kids to Sidwell Friends (a.k.a, Quaker) School when they move to Washington DC:

NO ONE should criticize their decision. But it's OK to hamper the efforts of poor families in Milwaukee, Cleveland, Washington DC and Nashville, TN to use vouchers and charters in order to raise and nurture their children as they determine is best for them.

It's always heartwarming for me to see Republicans pose all "compassionate conservative" and speak up for poor people as a means to the end of getting government money funded for their pet projects.

But when it comes to other people's children, Kay Brooks shows again that she's blinded by her own partisan goals. Poor families in Milwaukee, Cleveland, Washington DC and Nashville don't have to think about shielding their kids from the invasive and probing glare of the ruthless corporate media (or about accommodating the Secret Service). According to Jill Tubman over at Jack & Jill Politics, who is also a Sidwell Friends alum, it would be difficult for even the best public schools in the country to provide the same cocoon against tabloid journalism that Sidwell does. Tubman also seems to indicate that vouchers would not make as much of a difference as Sidwell is more competitive academically than it is driven by a family's ability to pay for the education.

In the end, those arguments don't matter as much as the question, "Why can't Kay Brooks leave other people's kids out of her attacks?"