July 3, 2007
If A Crappy School Is Named After You, Is That Cool?
Jay Greene and his friends at the Manhattan Institute have a new report out which looks at how schools are named. They note that in Florida, there are more schools named after manatees than after George Washington.
There's just one point I'd like to make, one that my friends have heard from me before.
If you are keeping track of the performance of our nation's public school systems (hell, Jay Greene was one of the first researchers anywhere to uncover the nation's shameful graduation rate charade) wouldn't you conclude that it probably isn't best to name public schools after people we respect? Check out the failing schools list under NCLB for New York and count how many schools there are named after Roberto Clemente...
If anything, the manatee is getting a raw deal.
