Why Sidwell Firends? The cost of an Adequate Education.

I was talking to my little sister the other day. She tells me the amount of money she pays for her son to attend the prestigious Browning School in Manhattan is pretty much the same as a year's tuition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Obama's will shell out similarly.

This from Ed Week:

Obamas Pick Private School,

Citing 'Fit,' Security, Privacy

President-elect Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, have chosen a private school for their two daughters, opting for an institution that another White House child, Chelsea Clinton, attended a decade ago.

Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, will be attending Sidwell Friends School, a private, Quaker school with a campus in northwest Washington for grades 5-12 and another in suburban Bethesda, Md., for kindergarten through 4th grade. Malia is in 5th grade and Sasha is in 2nd grade...

[An Obama aide] said Sidwell Friends can provide the security and privacy that the girls will need as part of the new first family. Tuition is $28,442 at the lower school and $29,442 at the middle and upper schools.

Obama Girls Will Go To Sidwell Friends

This from the Washington Post:

Elite Private School Is 'Best Fit' for

Next First Family

The middle school at Sidwell Friends,

which is used to accommodating

children of high-powered politicians.

Continuing a tradition among Washington's power elite, President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have decided to send their kids to Sidwell Friends School. Michelle Obama confirmed yesterday that Malia and Sasha, the incoming first daughters, will enroll at the pricey private school when the family moves into the White House in January.

Although Mrs. Obama has said that public schools were under consideration and consulted with D.C. school officials, the decision narrowed this week after she and the girls visited Sidwell and the private Georgetown Day School. Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, visited classes and met with students while their mother talked with administration officials and parents. Mrs. Obama also visited both schools last week when she came to Washington with her husband to tour the White House and meet with President and Mrs. Bush.

At Sidwell, the Obama girls will be following in the footsteps of Chelsea Clinton, who attended and graduated from the Quaker school during the eight years her father, Bill Clinton, was president. The last presidential child to attend Washington public schools in modern times was Amy Carter.

"A number of great schools were considered," Katie McCormick Lelyveld, Mrs. Obama's spokeswoman, said in a statement yesterday. "In the end, the Obamas selected the school that was the best fit for what their daughters need right now." ...