An April 26 Schools & Learning article on school names incorrectly said that no schools were named for former president Bill Clinton. There are two.
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Naming a school can be a tricky business. Once, it seemed easy: Pick a famous American -- U.S. presidents were always winners -- and you were in business. Even a regional or local hero would do. Now it can be more complicated.
In Berkeley, Calif., the community at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School has been debating whether to change the name because Jefferson was a slave owner, a motivation that has sparked other school name changes across the country.
And not just history drives name changes. In a few counties in Florida, school boards have discussed selling naming rights to schools as a way to generate revenue, but none has done so -- yet.
Still, more K-12 schools in the United States have been named for presidents than anybody else, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Lincoln tops the name list, with 683 schools emblazoned with the 16th president's name. The name of Washington is next, with 618, but some of those are for the first president, George , and others for educator Booker T. Washington . There are 270 Roosevelts , four of them for Eleanor and the others for Teddy and FDR.
Forty-seven schools are named for civil rights leader Martin Lu ther King Jr ., though 349 schools have the name of some other " King ," including Ad miral King Elementary School in Lorain, Ohio, which was named after famed naval leader and native son Ernest Joseph King.
There are 488 schools with " Jef ferson " in their name, 237 with " Madison " (though they are not all named for President James Madison ), 202 with " Kennedy " and 43 schools with " Bush " -- including one in Texas named for the current president's mother, Barbara -- though none listed by the center is named for President Bush or his predecessor, Bill Clinton .
People from other walks of life have been honored: Albert Ein stein , at five schools; Columbus , at 89. There are 76 named for Lafayette , the French general who helped the American colonies become independent; 37 Crocketts , with most in Texas, named for frontiersman Davy ; two schools named for comedian Bob Hope ; 27 for migrant farm leader Cesar Chavez ; and two for suffragist Susan B. Anthony.
Fifty-two schools are named for Horace Mann , often called the father of public education. In the 1800s, he led the Common School Movement, which aimed to give every child a basic education for free, funded by local taxes.
More names can be found at the National Center for Education Statistics: http:/
-- Valerie Strauss
