No Public Schools for President-elect Barack Obama

The Obama children, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, will attend Sidwell Friends School, a private Quaker school that another White House child, Chelsea Clinton, attended a decade ago.

President-elect Barack Obama and his wife 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, Maryland, for kindergarten through fourth grade. Malia is in fifth grade and Sasha is in second grade, suggesting that the girls would attend schools at different locations.

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

She said Sidwell can provide the security and privacy that the girls will need as part of the new first family. She also said that Sasha and Malia had become good friends with Vice President-elect Joe Biden's grandchildren, who go to the school.

Michelle Obama and her daughters visited Sidwell and another elite private school, Georgetown Day, earlier this week. The soon-to-be first lady visited both schools last week, without her daughters.

Lelyveld said that while public schools were considered, the Obamas felt that a private school was in the best interest of their children. The two girls currently attend the private University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where Michelle Obama is on the board.

Jimmy Carter's daughter, Amy, went to a public school, but Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton chose Sidwell for Chelsea. Hillary Clinton later said she received "unfortunately, good advice" that the press would bother Chelsea if she attended public school.

Messages left with school administrators on Friday were not immediately returned. A woman who answered the phone at the home of Bruce Stewart, Sidwell's head of school, said he was not home. But she said the school would not release a statement before Monday.

Al Gore III, the son of former Vice President Al Gore, also attended Sidwell, where tuition is $28,442 at the lower school and $29,442 at the middle and upper schools.