As Brian Kisida, Jonathan Butcher, and I documented, there has been a dramatic decline over the last several decades in the naming of schools after presidents, in particular, and people, in general. Instead, schools are increasingly receiving names that sound more like herbal teas, day spas, or nature shows than our nation’s founders. It’s gotten to the point where there are more schools in Florida named after manatees, the lovable sea cow, than George Washington. In Arizona there are more schools named after roadrunners (beep-beep!) than Thomas Jefferson. And there are plenty of schools that sound like Whispering Hills, Hawk’s Bluff, Deer’s Leap, etc….
But take heart, fans of school names with a civic purpose, the trend away from naming schools after presidents may be reversing. According to Powerline, “St. Paul’s Webster Magnet Elementary School changed its name last month to the Barack and Michelle Obama Service Learning Elementary.”
As David Shribman writes on RealClear Politics, erasing the name Webster from the school marks a real loss:
“There is no trace at all of Webster in the Obama Service Learning Elementary school today, not even a picture of Webster, who may have been the subject of more formal portraits of any man of his time, if not of all American history. Indeed, in the period leading up to the vote on the name change, the principal of the school, Lori Simon, actually had to figure out for whom the school was named originally.
Talk about a missed teaching moment. Webster was the greatest orator in the age of great oratory; some of his words remain in the American memory, even in this ahistorical age. He was probably the most eminent Supreme Court lawyer in American history, having argued 249 cases before the court, including several of the landmark cases of the early 19th century that shaped constitutional law in the United States for generations. And he was one of the greatest secretaries of state ever (and the first to serve non-consecutive terms, one under William Henry Harrison and John Tyler, another under Millard Fillmore).”
Of course, school names should reflect a community’s values and as those values shift, so too should school names. But couldn’t they have found a Gopher Valley school somewhere to rename?
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Don’t tell the folks at William S. Hackett Middle School about this.