Researchers at the institute have found the number of schools named after presidents and other “people worthy of emulation” has declined precipitously.

What has replaced them? Names that evoke the topographical or ecological heritage of the areas where schools are located.

Case in point: Florida has multiple Manatee High Schools. “In the last two decades,” the report states, “a public school built in Arizona was almost 50 times more likely to be named after such things as a mesa or a cactus than after a president.”

Why the shift? The authors blame “increased skepticism of inherited wisdom, revisionist history and increased interest in the environment.”

They may be on to something. Polling throughout the decades has shown public trust in leaders and institutions was quite high into the 1960s but has plunged since then.

Naming a high school for Bill Clinton or George W. Bush would almost assure a ruckus from some people in a community.

So local leaders might think, why bother? “It’s easier to find a bird who’s noncontroversial,” historian Eric Foner said.

The authors of the Manhattan Institute study say we’re shortchanging American students by not naming schools for leaders.

But do we really lose a chance to instill a sense of civil values when we send kids to Northwest Plains Ridge Valley High?

The presidents themselves might argue against that theory. In modern times, at least, most presidents have graduated from schools named after places rather than leaders. And they have gone on to do just fine for themselves on the civic involvement front, thank you.

Bill Clinton graduated from Hot Springs High School in Arkansas, Ronald Reagan from North Dixon High School in Illinois. Jimmy Carter graduated from Plains High School in Georgia. Gerald Ford graduated from Grand Rapids South High School in Michigan. (President Bush and his father graduated from Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. It is named after the school’s founder).

No post-World War II president went to a high school named after a president. Presumably, those presidents received an adequate education in civic responsibility.

Who knows, maybe the Manhattan Institute is on to something.

Certainly there’s reason to question how well schools are teaching civic education, given how few young people vote in elections. Here’s an idea for new schools, whether they choose to honor George Washington or the nearest cactus plant.

Remember the old slogan from Zenith: The quality goes in before the name goes on.