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We are supposed to love the public schools.  So we are constantly told by public officials.  Public officials who seem far less enthused about sending their own kids to the public schools.

Reports the New York Times:

When Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, was chief executive of the Chicago Public Schools, his office kept a log of nearly 40 pages listing the local politicians and business people and others who sought help getting children into the city's most selective public schools.

According to an article Tuesday in The Chicago Tribune, which first obtained and reported on the confidential log, those who sought such help included 25 aldermen, Mayor Richard M. Daley's office, the State House speaker, the state attorney general, the former White House social secretary and a former United States senator.

A spokesman for the Department of Education said Tuesday that the log was a record of those who asked for help, and that neither Mr. Duncan nor the aide who maintained the list, David Pickens, ever pressured principals to accept a child. Rather, he said, the creation of the list was an effort to reduce pressure on principals.

Ah, the sacrifices made by public servants.  "To bad about the local school my neighbors are stuck in.  Help me get into one of the handful of public schools which work!"

Shouldn't the rest of us get the same opportunity?