Conditions described as ‘perfect awful soup’ are merely the latest indignity to befall a place of learning named after the 44th president
Barack Obama’s legacy continues to fester, wreaking havoc on future generations of American leaders.
In Richmond, Va., nearly 300 students were supposed to start classes at Barack Obama Elementary School on Monday. Instead, local officials cleared the building and announced the school would be closed indefinitely due to extensive “mold growth” on the premises. Pest control was also called in to deal with a rat infestation.
Some parents who were inside the building moments before the closure was announced described seeing mold throughout the school, including on student laptops sitting in storage. Clearing the mold is expected to take several days, with students and staff potentially able to return by the end of the month.
Frustrated parents sounded off at a town hall meeting later that day. “Let’s just be honest, we’ve known Barack Obama’s had mold issues from as far back as at least 2024, if not earlier than that,” one said as local officials complained about lack of funding and one of the wettest summers they’ve ever seen from the standpoint of water, which created “the perfect awful soup” for mold to flourish.
Obama Elementary was plagued by “significant deferred maintenance issues,” including poor ventilation, a leaky roof, and a barely functioning HVAC unit, according to a 2024 assessment. Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D., Va.) and the state’s Democratic-controlled legislature recently approved a budget that included $520 million for school construction and repairs, which taxpayers can rest assured will be spent wisely.
Richmond Schools superintendent Jason Kamras served as an education policy adviser on Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. In one of his first acts as superintendent, a position he has held since 2018, Kamras recommended renaming the now-mold-infested school after the former president to reflect “the great promise of America.” The school was previously named for J.E.B. Stuart, a Confederate general best known for losing the Battle of Yellow Tavern and having a decent beard.
Kamras sought input from students regarding the name change but ultimately overrode them. Most students voted for “Northside,” after the neighborhood where the school resides. Obama came in second.
This week’s mold and rodent debacle in Richmond is merely the latest indignity to befall a school named after the 44th president. In August 2009, school board officials in Asbury Park, N.J., voted to rename a local elementary school after Obama, who had been in office for just seven months. He hadn’t even won the Nobel Peace Prize yet. Asbury Park’s Barack H. Obama Elementary School debuted its new name in 2010, then shut down permanently the following year due to low enrollment.
In 2014, former Obama chief of staff and then-Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel (D.) announced plans for a $60 million prep school named after his former boss. Its eventual demise perfectly encapsulates the dysfunction of Democratic-run cities.
First, they had to find another location due to NIMBY opposition. Then, Emanuel agreed to pick a different name after critics complained that the school wasn’t being built on the South Side, the predominantly black and lower-income part of the city where Obama launched his political career.
City officials spent the next two years looking for a new location. In 2016, they redirected the $60 million earmarked for the school’s construction to pay off the Chicago teachers’ union and avert a strike. Emanuel said the project was merely “deferred, but not permanently.” He left office in 2019.
As of today, the school does not exist and never will.
Some political observers have suggested that Obama is uniquely predisposed to inflict misfortune on the individuals and institutions touched by his legacy.
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