Stop the presses! I agree with the editors of the News & Observer that Wake school names should educate and inspire students. They write, “There have been civic leaders in this community who have focused much of their energy, whether as mayors or state legislators or county commissioners, on education. A school name could recognize those contributions.”
The editorial echoes a 2007 study published by Jay Greene, Brian Kisida, and Jonathan Butcher, What’s in a Name? The Decline in The Civic Mission of School Names. Greene, Kisida, and Butcher found that most school districts did not name their schools after a president or a significant historical/cultural figure but chose animals or inanimate objects instead. For example, they discovered that “Of almost 3,000 public schools in Florida, five honor George Washington, compared with eleven named after manatees.”
The N&O editors are troubled by this trend and rightly so. I have one procedural suggestion, however. The school board should appoint a nonpartisan group of Wake County citizens to a committee that would be responsible for making name recommendations, which would then be forwarded to the school board for approval.
