Nope, no new Department picks to withstand some reform-o-meter treatment, but a dog. A Portuguese water dog, in fact, which will shortly take up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. We speculated and we wondered and now we know: Malia and Sasha are getting their puppy at last. They’ve apparently named him “Bo” after “Bo” Diddley, rock n’ roll great. (And (s)he is a present from Senator Ted Kennedy.) Nothing like a little bit of feel good fluff news for an early Monday morning.

If President Obama was miffed when his daughters’ school closed because of “what, a little bit of ice” earlier this winter, I wonder how he feels about Sidwell being shut down for Washington’s six inches of snow today. (Maybe a little better—it really IS coming down around here. I just walked by the White House and took in the view. I hope the Obamas are enjoying it; it’s gorgeous. But I digress.)

It’s one thing for the Obama girls to miss a few days of school because of inclement weather, but some of their classmates are going to miss school every single day, at least if David Obey and other House Democrats have their way. This morning the Washington Post editorial page relays the story of Deborah Parker, whose two children also attend Sidwell Friends thanks to a voucher from the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

“The mere thought of returning to public school frightens me,” Ms. Parker told us as she related the opportunities — such as a trip to China for her son — made possible by the program. Tell her, as critics claim, that vouchers don’t work, and she’ll list her children’s improved test scores, feeling of safety and improved motivation.  

But the debate unfolding on Capitol Hill isn’t about facts. It’s about politics and the stranglehold the teachers unions have on the Democratic Party. Why else has so much time and effort gone into trying to kill off what, in the grand scheme of government spending, is a tiny program? Why wouldn’t Congress want to get the results of a carefully calibrated scientific study before pulling the plug on a program that has proved to be enormously popular? Could the real fear be that school vouchers might actually be shown to be effective in leveling the academic playing field?

Kudos to the Post for calling out Obey and others for their hypocrisy. There are plenty of reasons to be against vouchers in theory, but what are the reasons for taking away these opportunities from actual Washington, DC children in reality? I can think of none.

Photograph from White House website

Seemingly upholding her “mom-in-chief” moniker, Michelle Obama took her two daughters to their first day at Sidwell Friends this morning. The first family moved to Washington this weekend—two weeks before the inauguration—so that Malia and Sasha could start the spring semester along with their classmates.

Seems the Obamas finally decided where Sasha and Malia will go to school: Sidwell Friends. Since it’s in Maryland, its elementary school, at least, does not participate in the DC voucher program... which means breathing room for the President-Elect on that front. But its middle and high schools do participate, and Malia at least is very close to (if not in already?) middle school. Regardless, seems like a wise choice since the school a) has dealt with first family students before and b) is similar enough to the Lab School in Chicago to provide (hopefully) a smooth mid-year transition. She might be a First Daughter, but Sasha is still very young. On another note, poor Georgetown Day School. Guess it will get its day in the sun some other day.

On Saturday, the Washington Post advised Barack and Michelle Obama that as they think about the pros and cons of various schools here in D.C., they might also want to keep in mind the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which gives District parents the same power of choice for their own kids. The Post won’t weigh in on the whole public vs. private debate, of course. But the piece muses:

Let’s hope the experience of moving his girls and finding the place where they will flourish resonates with Mr. Obama so that he reexamines his stance on the District’s voucher program. How is it right to take away what little choice there is for needy D.C. children?

Interesting thoughts—in fact, very similar to thoughts offered up by our own Mike Petrilli not too long ago! Mike unabashedly admitted he is pulling for Georgetown Day, specifically because it participates in the D.C. voucher program.

It’s one thing for Candidate Obama to oppose publicly funded vouchers on principle. It’s quite another thing for a President Obama to eliminate an existing program and kick his daughters’ classmates out of their beloved school.

The Post piece today echoes that sentiment. It notes that both Georgetown Day as well as Sidwell Friends —two schools Michelle Obama visited recently —participate in the voucher program.

That means classmates of Malia and Sasha might lose the ability to attend their chosen school if the vouchers were eliminated. That wouldn’t seem fair.

"Michelle Obama visits Washington private schools "

The soon-to-be first lady toured Georgetown Day School in the morning and Sidwell Friends School, which Chelsea Clinton attended, in the afternoon. In between, she spent about two hours visiting the residential portion of the White House with first lady Laura Bush. Their husbands met privately in the Oval Office.

The mom-in-chief better put her foot down about this . Reuters reports that Sasha and Malia Obama have been invited by Billy Ray Cyrus to guest star on his daughter’s hit TV show, "Hannah Montana ." Unfortunately, we all know that Miley "stuck in school’s so lame " Cyrus is no role model when it comes to education.

On a more serious note, if we give a 15-year-old celebrity a hard time for some ordinary school-centered angst, what’s going to happen to the first daughters? I predict an unfortunate but serious case of growing up too fast. Let’s hope there are no bedsheets and cameras involved .

This Jay Mathews article and this Valerie Strauss post both indicate that the Georgetown Day School is the leading contender for the Malia and Sasha Sweepstakes , with the Maret School close behind.

I’m pulling for GDS for one simple reason: it participates in the D.C. voucher program , unlike Maret. And its selection by the Obamas, I believe, will ensure the future livelihood of said program. It’s one thing for Candidate Obama to oppose publicly funded vouchers on principle. It’s quite another thing for a President Obama to eliminate an existing program and kick his daughters’ classmates out of their beloved school. I disagree with Checker on this one: this pick will have major policy ramifications.

Lord knows the Obama girls deserve a puppy, maybe a whole litter, as their reward for enduring the miseries of their dad’s campaign and mom’s frequent absences. (It sounds like they’ve got a terrific grandma , however, who will be moving to DC with them.)

I trust the family will pick an adorable and politically correct pup. (A beagle would seem especially appropriate, considering that most of them are white and black and brown.)

The White House , after all, is an easy place to keep a dog. Plenty of backyard, good fences, scads of squirrels, and lots of staff around 24/7. (I suppose even the long-suffering White House gardeners and groundskeepers might have more difficulty with a pony on the South Lawn , though it might make the Obama kids even happier.)

And it will surely be a treat for the country to have two cute youngsters at the White House again after what seems like an awfully long spell with those post-adolescent twins .

Still, being a kid at the White House, for all the superficial glamor and appeal, is not an easy situation. Too many people will obsess overmuch about where they go to school , what they wear, how often they get to travel on Air Force One, what they eat, what books they read, what games they place, and on and on. Too many people will try to read macro-policy significance into the private decisions that the First Couple make about raising and educating their own kids, even to score political points by citing, shall we say, differences between how they raise their kids and the programs the Obama administration does or does not support for everybody. School choice enthusiasts, for example, will delight in pointing to alleged hypocrisy between the private school to which these girls will almost certainly be sent and the President-elect’s likely aversion to publicly-funded vouchers for others.

Such temptations are hard to resist, but it would be good to resist them. People’s public and private lives are simply not the same thing. At least not for conscientious parents. In private, they do what is best for their own children and in public they conduct themselves as they must. Chefs in fancy restaurants don’t feed sous vide swordfish or foie gras terrine to their three year olds. Talk show hosts don’t interrupt or challlenge their kids’ every comment. Star athletes don’t demand that their daughters and sons be jocks if they’d rather be artists. Race car drivers don’t teach their teen-agers to speed.

Give the Obamas a break. Give these girls a break. Give them some privacy. Let them be kids. (One assumes the White House will lay down firm ground rules regarding direct media coverage.) It’s hard enough to be accompanied to school and to sleepovers and to McDonalds and to soccer games by the Secret Service. Don’t expect the President to govern and parent as if those are interchangeable activities. Don’t demand a puppy on every doorstep.

Photograph by cristianocani from Flickr