Don't you love how I used the word like. Like it was so totally cool.
I attribute it to the fact that I did indeed spend 5 hours in the car today.
It was elective day, and library day, and science fair day (but to be fair no extra trips for that) and getting ready for Charter Day on the Hill day.
So...I listened to the radio. A LOT.
The Utah legislature is thinking of allowing school districts to put advertising on their buses. Good, brilliant, ingenious idea or STUPID STUPID STUPID?
My kids don't ride a bus and never have so the actual ad space wouldn't affect their day to day travel. Some points brought up in the radio discussion were Colleges and Universities could do targeted advertising, music stores could 'sponsor' Band trips. Perhaps athletic stores might like to sponsor a football trip. These ideas actually seem pretty A-Ok with me. In my case on the rare occasion our school 'rents' a bus for a field work they could have the cost defrayed by a local business. Two-thumbs up. BUT....if they allow one type of advertising would they have to allow another? What about the local pizza place...still ok? How about Coca-Cola? You know they would be first in line to advertise. No biggie? What about Red Bull? It seems a slippery line to walk and If I was cutting it off I would have to make it at the line of food. We already have a huge problem with obesity in our schools so much that schools are thinking of taking out their vending machines so the kids can walk around the block to the 7-11 and pick up the same thing in a much larger size. Why does everything have to have a slippery slope?
Then of course there is a safety issue. The reason buses are bright yellow and have tons of flashing lights is because little kids often don't think before they run out in traffic crossing the street to get home. What if a driver was 'distracted' by an advertisement. They would last until the first accident. But, we have distractions EVERYWHERE around us. If we use the argument about having no distractions while driving we would need to take down billboards and business signs and remove the radio from our car.
So my question is...what do you think? Should schools be able to use their vast moving fleet as billboards?
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7 comments:
Is nothing sacred? I tend to think that school buses are. That's a big thumbs down for advertising on them. It's enough to see it on public transportation and other vehicles.
Advertising on a bus? I don't know, seems a little commercial to me. And I agree, it would be hard to draw the line on what is appropriate and what isn't. But, it would be nice for someone else to foot the bill, instead of the parents for a change. Hhm? I think the jury is still out on this one.
My initial reaction was the same as Amanada's and Sharon's. No way, they get enough advertising everywhere they go. But after thinking about it. I can see value in a 'sponsorship' type arrangement especially for extra curricular activities. I definitely applaud the person with the idea for having an out of the box idea. We need more of those (ideas) even if this isn't the right one.
It seems that the core issue here is about schools being funded properly so that they don't have to find creative ways to supplement.
We faced an odd situation in our high school. In exchange for some educational materials, the school required students to watch a 5 minute t.v. blip each morning. I can't even remember what they showed us, but I remember it being such a big waste of time, and I think there were ads.
Also, in the name of funding, our school allowed horrible food choices at lunch and vending machines in the hallways.
So, it seems that schools have developed creative ways to achieve funding needs. Instead of pimping up the buses with ads, which is just another creative way to supplement, why don't we jfund education the way it needs to be funded?
I know.... A huge portion of Utah's budget goes to schooling. Fine. But the fact is we have a lot of kids here and we'll continue to grow. I'd like to see us fund schools and educational programs properly and adequately so schools don't have to find creative ways to make up the difference. Raise my taxes. I'll pay.
BTW, because I feel so strongly about this issue, I REFUSE to let my kids participate in school fund raisers. They won't go door to door selling cookie dough, wrapping paper, or anything else the school or PTA tries to get them to do.
I agree with a lot of what you said Brenda. First Schools should never have sold their 'souls' for vending machines. And I totally agree on door to door fundraising efforts. Nada here either. I totally want an opt-out form for that assembly.
BUT...I do think we need to be more creative in finding funding sources AND how we use the funds. One problem with just raising taxes to cover our needs is that we are not looking objectively at what are really needs and what are wants or just traditions.
An example. In Savanna's traditional public school I receive monthly a printed school lunch menu...(usually on colored paper) A school calendar that really only has the 'short' days marked and once in awhile a parent teacher conference day. AND often a specialized calendar from the kindergarten teachers showing what letter or what not they are working on. While this is all fine and good, I recently read a story where our school district superintendent basically said he just did a complete overhaul of the district budget to remove unneeded items. Well I still receive these papers. In a school like ours where there are between 400-500 kids that is nearly 3 reams of paper a month for papers that in most cases get thrown away or if they are lucky recycled at least within a month if not sooner. All of these items could easily be emailed to the recipients saving money on paper, ink and time to copy them. Now I know, I know not everyone has email. But guess what. My other kids in a public charter school have the same issues. I get the lunch menu emailed, we get an emailed newsletter with important dates and teachers regularly email important information to the parents. And NOT everyone in the school has an email or checks in regularly. Is it an inconvenience for them...most probably. I know of some that rely on friends to get the important school info. If it was such a big deal of access for schools though, they could start out with an opt-out program so only those that truly need a hard copy would get them. It would save money. Charter schools have strict budgets because they are not funded equally with other public schools. They have found unique ways to work around the dicrepancy.
And just as an aside. I don't think it is all that 'out' there to have schools move to a 'paperless' mode. The federal government already greatly encourages people to file income taxes online and Mike's W2 forms were not mailed in triplicate. He had to access them online and print them himself. That makes sense to me. We need to not just use the technology available to us but embrace it. Schools seem to always be just on the other side of doing this. Granted it could also be a funding issue to get it all started.
I do not support overall tax hikes for education without SERIOUS reforms, in how we do things.
I would agree that this ad on a bus idea DOES NOT reform anything...the one thing I like about it is that it uses creative thinking...and we definitely need more of that.
Oh I want to hear more thoughts and if you don't agree please let me know!
On the bus issue - if they could limit the kinds of advertising I say go for it. But I also think advertising money earned should have a set home before they ever get it, sports or music programs for instance, so it doesn't go to sending home multiple copies of school calendars. :) (And that's no joke - I remember throwing away papers like CRAZY from the school!)
I don't think tax hikes would do anything. Where would it go? What would it do? Paying teachers more doesn't make them better teachers or like their job more. More schools and lower class sizes would help. But I think education needs some major overhauls, and throwing more and more money to them will not change that. John Stossel did a great piece showing that schools with loads of money don't perform any better (and many times worse) than those with little money. (Called "Stupid in America," youtube it.)
I was going to talk about homeschool co-ops and other classroom type situations we get to be involved in with very little or no budget, but suffice it to say, amazing things can be done with very little money involved (and heaven forbid, no teaching certificates).
Advertising on the school bus makes me nervous, because how would that get policed. I don't want food shoved in my kids face or fancy trips or something completely inappropriate. School is about learning and growing, not about what you need to buy or what great thing you need to do. I just think this isn't the way to go to get more funding.
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