Surprise: No DCPS Waitlists for Obamas
On Monday, Politico’s Carol E. Lee penned a where-will-the-Obama-kids-go-to-school piece what started with this fun tidbit:
Someone called Lafayette Elementary in Chevy Chase late last week, wanting to know “what the process is for enrolling children who don’t live within the school’s boundaries.
“The caller gave an address: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — the White House — and said there would be two children.”
Principal Lynn Main told Lee she took it as a hoax, but the anecdote does raise the question: What exactly would the enrollment process be for the Obama kids, assuming they didn’t want to attend their in-boundary elementary, Francis-Stevens Education Center in Dupont Circle the West End.
For instance, more than one person has suggested that Oyster-Adams Bilingual School—where DCPS Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee sends her kids—would be a strong choice. As would other high-performing DCPS elementaries such as Janney, Eaton, Shepherd, Murch, or, yes, Lafayette.
Would the Obamas have to go through the same out-of-boundary process as anyone else?
LL put the question to Rhee in an e-mail: “I have the discretion to assign kids to schools during the school year,” she replied.
In other words, on the rare chance that Michelle Obama opts for DCPS, she can pick any damn school she wants.
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5:18 pm
Ummm… is this really a scandal? I’m really OK with the fucking PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES sending his kid to any public school in DC that he wants. Just the fact that he would even choose to send his kids to a public school AT ALL would be shocking and make me proud. Well, nothing would make me proud of our school system, but it would be kind of cool.
I mean, really. I think it’s probably okay that the Obamas get special privileges. I mean, he can already park anywhere he wants, has a 747 and a helicopter at his disposal, and has an armed SWAT team that follows him around. We don’t get those, do we? The school thing, meh. He’s going to be the President for crissake.
5:41 pm
More importantly: Francis-Stevens is in the West End, not Dupont Circle (or even nebulous “Dupont”).
5:47 pm
Sigh. Yes, it’s more properly called West End. But barely.
And SHEEZUS you Obama groupies are sensitive. Who said there was a scandal! LL just reports what the people want to know!
6:07 pm
Reid: Francis Stevens is within the the Dupont ANC 2B’s borders. While geographically it is arguably West End, politically it’s clearly Dupont.
9:15 pm
either way, that’s twice today you’ve had to respond to a neighborhood name question, mr. debonis. frustrating when us commenters nag and nag, eh? :)
11:16 pm
This one was on me! The other one wasn’t. Ask my colleagues–I’m a neighborhood nazi!
11:25 pm
He’s a neighborhood nazi!
11:57 pm
I wouldn’t go that far. He is pretty handy with a map. Maybe that’s because the one good map is in his office. Where’s the map going to go when we move?
8:57 am
Ironically, the actual Nazis were not in fact “neighborhood nazis”. They just called everything “Germany”.
9:17 am
That may be doubley ironic in a temporal since- Going back to at least the 1950’s, the Dupont Circle Citizens Association’s boundaries extended South to K Street.