THE OBAMAS walk away from public schools. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact, it’s wonderful that the Obamas had such a broad range of public and private school choices available to them. What’s puzzling is that the president-elect opposes programs that would bring that same easy choice of schools within reach of families who lack his personal wealth.”

UPDATE: Reader Louis Abelman says that Obama supports vouchers. I hope he’s right, and that Cato is wrong, but I note that the story Abelman sends is rather equivocal:

Senator Obama said this week that he is open to supporting private school vouchers if research shows they work.

“I will not allow my predispositions to stand in the way of making sure that our kids can learn,” Mr. Obama, who has previously said he opposes vouchers, said in a meeting with the editorial board of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. “We’re losing several generations of kids, and something has to be done.”

Education analysts said Mr. Obama’s statement is the closest they have ever seen a Democratic presidential candidate come to embracing the idea of vouchers. . . .

When Mr. Obama filled out questionnaires for both national teachers unions last year, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, he told the unions that he did not support vouchers. But on Wednesday Mr. Obama opened his remarks to the Journal-Sentinel’s question on vouchers by saying he had to admit that he has been a “skeptic” of vouchers. . . . Told a current longitudinal study is ongoing, Mr. Obama said he would respond to its findings with an open mind.

Indeed, the story says this doesn’t make him a voucher “supporter.” So we’ll see . . . .