President Obama and Mayor de Blasio have much in common.
Both believe in universal pre-K. Both see inequality as a menace. And both have been able, because of their positions, to ensure good schools for their children.
For Malia and Sasha Obama, that meant the very private University of Chicago Laboratory School when they lived in Illinois, followed by the exclusive Sidwell Friends School in Washington. Though it’s true that Dante and Chiara have attended New York City public schools, it’s also true that these are elite public schools.
Both de Blasio children attended the Children’s School, which takes special-needs and general-education kids by lottery — the same method used by the charter schools he denounces for not having enough special-needs kids. The de Blasio children then went on to MS 51. As a city councilman, their dad would use his clout to help Rep. Yvette Clark’s nephew get in.
Their high schools are likewise selective. Chiara, for example, attended the Beacon School, one of the most sought-after schools in the city. Meanwhile, Dante’s Brooklyn Tech boasts a $13 million endowment, the kind of extra cash the mayor complains about when a charter has it.
In Albany on Monday, the mayor testified that his plan to raise taxes is essential to meeting the “inequality crisis” and bringing us closer to “One New York.” The president will likely say something similar about inequality tonight in his State of the Union.
But if inequality is the villain in our society, why not give all children the choices Sasha and Malia and Chiara and Dante have — whether they end up choosing a private school, a public school, a charter school or a religious school?
So how about it Mr. Mayor and Mr. President? The champions of choice need no lectures about inequality: They’ve been on the front lines for decades, fighting to end the two-tiered system of public education.
If you two really want to strike a blow against inequality, isn’t it time you joined them?