A simple question regarding database design that has always bothered me
There really is a whole raft of pros to normalizing your database. If the main issue you're having is naming, then you're in pretty good shape. Apart from space which you've already mentioned: 


The width of your table will be smaller, this will increase the speed of your selects.
Updates and inserts will be quicker because you're inserting/updating integers instead of text
Maintaining your data will be easier ie if there was a new type of school which needed to be added, you should just be able to add it to the table.  
You can create hierarchies in your lookup tables 
You don't need to reply on your application layer to enforce referential integrity. 
You can manage changes to your lookup options over time (ie what is "Public" is no longer applicable after July 1st but older records created before this date must still show this as an option?)
Loading data into a data warehouse is simplified
It makes it easier to other DBAs to understand your schema


Normalization is usually going to have a level of subjectivity. You database schema should reflect a balance between maintainability, complexity and performance. On the flip side, if you're only going to have 1 or 2 tables and a small amount of records, maybe normalization is overkill? I would tend to normalize anyway, because if the database needs to scale up, you're already in a good position to do so.

As for naming, have a think about the most sensible name that will describe the table's contents without it sounding crazy like the example you gave above. Otherwise you'll end up with a schema which is hard to understand. 

Hope this helps.