But seriously, they're the First Kids. Obama's got enough on his plate: do we really insist that he and his wife be distracted by the difficulties of making their kids poster-children for public education?

Amy Carter went to public school. She apparently had a whole lot of trouble making friends with the kids there, and she wasn't allowed to play outside during recess, because the Secret Service couldn't secure the playground, which was just a few feet from the sidewalk.

Perhaps one of my favorite facts about Sidwell: the elementary school kids bring in vegetables each week to make soup for homeless people, and then they compost the vegetable scraps to use around the school grounds.

President Santos sent his kids to public school.

Did Santos ever actually take office? Geena Davis's president sent her kids to public school. Good thing Bartlett's kids were older. There is no way he would've sent his kids to DC public schools.

Did Santos ever actually take office?

Um...he got inagurated?

Okay, but that was the last episode, right? I'm doing a season 5 rewatch right now.

I am very pro-public school. Insanely so. But I can't begrudge ANY presidential parent choosing private over public in DC. I had an awesome public school system. In a district with 3 high schools and little other options and fucking poor, but it shone. It was quite the revelation to go to a fancy-private college and see how many were private-school babes who sneered at public schools.

I'd want my kid as best educated, as best protected, as best made non-exotic, as possible. And private might just do that better than public, as elitist as that might be, But if you are president, isn't that the pinnacle of elite that we officially recognize?

I'm also very pro-public school. But here's the thing: the way to help urban public schools is by having both good funding and engaged parents. Middle- and upper-class parents have the know-how and the werewithal (financially and time-wise) to support the schools in ways that lower-income parents often (but not always) don't. They volunteer, they create and fund programs, they support tutoring efforts, all of that--and the lower-income kids benefit along with the children of the parents who are raising money and volunteering. That kind of engaged community keeps the kids in school and the good teachers where they are instead of burning out and going to law school or something.

But you can't expect that kind of engagement from the President. That's not why we hired him, and I think it's silly to demand it.

Now I'm tempted to call.

Can't hurt!

Now I crash.

Yeah, the inaguration was the last episode.

I'm being cyberstalked. It's creeping me out big time. I haven't responded to any of the emails, friend requests, blog comments...song dedications, professions of soul-matedom, that I'm the best writer ever, blah blah tinfoil hat.

So creepy.