President Barack Obama reopened Monday what is often a sore subject in Washington, saying that his daughters could not obtain from District of Columbia public schools the academic experience they receive at the private Sidwell Friends School.

But the city, accustomed to the mantra that its schools need reform, seemed to view the judgment as self-evident.

Obama made his comments on NBC’s “Today” show in response to a woman who asked whether Malia and Sasha Obama “would get the same kind of education at a D.C. public school” that they would get at the D.C. private school that has educated generations of the city’s elite.

“I’ll be blunt with you: The answer is no, right now,” Obama said. D.C. public schools “are struggling,” he said.

Obama said that if he wanted to get his daughters into one of the public schools, “we could probably maneuver to do it.” But he said the “broader problem” is that parents without “a bunch of connections” don’t have such options.

Slightly fewer than half of the students tested in the school that serves the White House neighborhood met or exceeded proficiency standards in reading and math this year.