Barack H. Obama Elementary to close

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20110318/ts_yblog_theticket/barack-h-obama-elementary-to-close


The Barack H. Obama Elementary School in Asbury Park, N.J. will be shuttered this summer, largely due to low enrollment, the Asbury Park Press reports.

Bruce N. Rodman, the official who oversees the district's finances, determined that it was necessary for one of the district's elementary schools to close and the Obama school's enrollment had dropped 35 percent in the past 10 years, the newspaper reports.

The Bangs Avenue School elected in 2010 to change its name to Barack H. Obama Elementary.

At the time that the school acquired its new name, administrators took a lot of flak for ostensibly focusing on the name change instead of the plight of its students. But the city resident behind the movement, Myra Campbell, believed it would "send a subliminal message" to the students.

"Every time they walk through the school doors, there's going to be a certain amount of pride in where they go to school," Campbell told the Star-Ledger in 2009. "We now move forward in trying what we can to improve the academic skills of the students and also the social skills." At the time, another New Jersey school had already been renamed after the president.

About 1,000 students will be reassigned to local schools in the fall.

[Inuyasha mode]

Probably all a plot by right wingers. They identified the school with the largest enrolment decline trend and pushed through the name change so that they could close it the next year.

[/Inuyasha mode]

But in all seriousness, this does underscore how important symbolism is.

And now the right is going to ballyhoo this.
Personally, I'd rather go to a school called Barrack than Bangs.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I guess GObama is going to be in tears.

Schools are incorporating the name Barack Obama into their names? If that's not ridiculous and a little on the obsessive side I don't know what is. Seriously Obama has not even done anything...next their going to start printing dollar bills with his face on them.

He has a considerable line of accomplishments. But in this case, his name is given to predominantly black schools, which is important as he is the first black president.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I still think its ridiculous........ I don't see becoming president as very impressive and well being black is no more of an accomplishment then being white or any other color.....now if someone became president and really changed things for the better or at least actively tried to improve things for the citizens of this country then I might be impressed.

Again, he's the first black president. Considering the history of American race relations, that's a considerable milestone.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Don't particularly care, the man is the sitting President of the United States and as such, he shouldn't have things named after him.

If they want to do something like that after he leaves office, I could care less, but not while he is in office.

Yes its a bit too close to something that would be a likely occurance in Nazi germany......or Soviet russia, you know hardcore nationalism and a sense of total loyalty to the 'leader'. at least that is how I feel about it.

They should have named a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, welfare office, or unemployment office after him because that is going to be his legacy.

because he cares so much about helping out the citizens of this country. lol

No because he is causing so much unemployment that 1/3 the country is now on welfare.

Well to be fair he can't take all the blame, but i do see your point.

It's normally considered prudent to wait until someone's dead before you start naming stuff after them. There was a bit of fuss in my hometown over "Ronald Reagan Highway" some years ago. Not much though, as it's a heavily right-wing area and people were eager to pay tribute to their side's idol.