Opinion: Arnold elementary

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It seems as if it’s been only two years since the California Teachers Association branded Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger an enemy of schools, took him to court over a budget that they said illegally shortchanged education, and defeated every ballot measure in his special election, sending his approval ratings into the dust. That’s because it really has been only two years. But the governor and the CTA settled and made up, and he’s viewed as a sort-of friend to education, at least for the present.

So maybe it’s only a little weird that a charter school in Woodland Hills would rename itself Arnold Schwarzenegger Elementary School.

That’s what happened Monday, on Schwarzenegger’s 60th birthday.

Most fifth-graders might be unimpressed with getting their school named after a governor. But named after the Terminator? Cool.

But is it a good idea? Charter schools can name themselves after whomever they want, but that doesn’t mean they should, especially when the person’s legacy is not yet complete. It seemed like a good idea in 1977, for example, when Dodger Steve Garvey was known as ‘Mr. Clean’ and was considered an upstanding role model for kids, to name a junior high school after him. But Garvey at the time was not only still alive — and therefore able to lose his role-model status — but still playing.

The rest is history. Kind of. Garvey’s wholesome image helped boost talk about his becoming a political candidate after retiring from baseball — the U.S. Senate was mentioned at the time — but the family image evaporated when he divorced, his wife wrote a tell-all book in which she accused him of cheating and abuse, and he acknowledged fathering two children by two different women at about the same time. Not that such actions would be deemed disqualifying for political office today. But is he still Mr. Clean? Still someone you want your school named after?

There’s no suggestion that the governor is headed toward some new scandal. But he signs the budgets. What if he has to slash school funding? Although, then, perhaps, they could call the school Terminator Elementary.