Ailing SoCal Schools Ditch Plan For Campus Ads
SAN DIEGO (CBS/AP) — San Diego's school board on Tuesday rejected a
plan to allow ads in hallways, cafeterias, libraries and other places on campus after showing interest in the idea several months ago to help ease the pain of budget cuts.
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Board members, who entertained a slideshow pitch from a district official that featured a photo with a Nike logo, were clearly uneasy about having campuses peppered with messages of consumerism.
"I don't want to be part of using kids to sell stuff," said board member John de Beck. "When I get into this whole arena of advertising and kids, I'm not going to go there. I just won't do
it."
The board voted 4-1 to scrap the idea. Even the lone dissenter, Richard Barrera, said he would consider the idea only if advertisers were screened for their support for public education
and other causes and if students could have a say.
"The bar that I would set for this is pretty high, maybe impossibly high," Barrera said.
The proposal was modeled on others school districts that have embraced corporate sponsors in the last two years, including districts that cover Miami and Orlando in Florida and Santa Rosa
and Chula Vista in California.
The San Diego district's staff estimated that ads on the district website could generate $100,000 a year and that campus ads could raise about $10,000 a year at each school. Board members noted that would offer little relief in a district with an annual operating budget of $1.17 billion.
The board asked its staff in January to study the idea amid deep budget cuts. The district says its annual budget has been cut $270 million over three years, while enrollment has grown 2 percent to about 132,000 for grades kindergarten through 12.
Public schools began to embrace corporate sponsors in the 1990s, initially by allowing ads on school buses and then in extracurricular areas like athletic fields, said Cathy Christie,
chief of staff for Education Committee of the States, a Denver-based group that researches education trends.
San Diego would have gone a step further by allowing ads in cafeterias and hallways. They also would be allowed in libraries, exterior walls and fences, vending areas and athletic fields.
The Sweetwater Union High School District, which serves 43,000 students in grades 7 through 12 in Chula Vista and other San Diego suburbs, hopes to raise $1 million a year under a policy adopted in July that allows ads in hallways, cafeterias and other areas, said spokeswoman Lillian Leopold. Ads are not allowed inside classrooms.
Sweetwater's annual operating budget has been cut $32 million to $333 million since 2007, which prompted the move, Leopold said.
The Sweetwater board must approve each new sponsor. The first, Platt College, could have ads on campus by November if the board gives its blessing.
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