School advertisements (1 Viewer)

[Tashah]

Many school districts in Illinois are hurting due to fiscal cutbacks, and the hurt is only going to get worse as the state attempts to rectify its huge budget deficit.

One school district is exploring selling advertising space to corporations within its schools. In the lunchroom, and just about anywhere. On your locker door there may be an advertisement for McDonalds. Open your locker and there is another for Adidas. An iPhone banner hangs in one hallway, a US Cellular banner in another. The school auditorium and sports stadium are renamed. You get the gist.

Do you think selling corporate advertising space in public schools is appropriate?

 

[StandUpChuck]

I cannot stomach the thought, Tashah. I've said it for years: schools should be ale to deal with budget cuts with proper financial management. That's what the rest of us do. We don't go out and sell our souls each time finances get tight.

It cracks me up. The schools pound reading nutritional information into kids in 1st grade ... before they can make it through Dick & Jane book. They are told to avoid cholesterol, fat & sugar. Um, that's my job. But then they are served an absolutely disgusting, soldium filled, fattening lunch. Now they want to let McDonald's advertise there? i don't think so. :naughty

 

[Slartibartfast]

Many school districts in Illinois are hurting due to fiscal cutbacks, and the hurt is only going to get worse as the state attempts to rectify its huge budget deficit.

One school district is exploring selling advertising space to corporations within its schools. In the lunchroom, and just about anywhere. On your locker door there may be an advertisement for McDonalds. Open your locker and there is another for Adidas. An iPhone banner hangs in one hallway, a US Cellular banner in another. The school auditorium and sports stadium are renamed. You get the gist.

Do you think selling corporate advertising space in public schools is appropriate?

I don't think so. Often this advertising is counter to the interest of the school in create productive, educated, healthy, and civil students.

I guess I would be ok with the harmless stuff like cell phones, shoes, and stuff. Things like McDonalds and Snickers bars should not have a place there.

 

[StandUpChuck]

I don't think so. Often this advertising is counter to the interest of the school in create productive, educated, healthy, and civil students.

I guess I would be ok with the harmless stuff like cell phones, shoes, and stuff. Things like McDonalds and Snickers bars should not have a place there.

But then you have to have a committee deciding what is harmless. And probably pay them for their time. How is advertising for Nike sneakers and cell phones fair to kids without means? No. Schools are not the venue for any of this stuff.

 

[Arcana XV]

On principle, I'd be against it. Public schools should be 100% funded by the state, but if the state can't manage to keep the schools properly funded and they're in urgent need of more money, then I say go for it. They obviously need money and it has to come from somewhere, no? Either way the kids lose, so at least chose the lesser of two evils. Either they get a subpar education with obsolete tools, or they get bombarded with advertisement images in the one place that still sort of shielded them from that. :shrug:

 

[WhyteRash]

i can agree with both opposing views for valid reasons..
the obvious reason not to do it, is the affect of monetary influence and the opinions of a wealthy few..
but alternatively, if you think it isnt already occuring just look at the sports arenas..

our football team has new everything every time and there is no question who the influences are.. but aside of a bit of local 'back sctratching' i dont see, nor have i heard of anything nefarious going on.

ive been through some towns with schools that are most assuredly influenced by private funding and they look great.

 

[Goshin]

Many school districts in Illinois are hurting due to fiscal cutbacks, and the hurt is only going to get worse as the state attempts to rectify its huge budget deficit.

One school district is exploring selling advertising space to corporations within its schools. In the lunchroom, and just about anywhere. On your locker door there may be an advertisement for McDonalds. Open your locker and there is another for Adidas. An iPhone banner hangs in one hallway, a US Cellular banner in another. The school auditorium and sports stadium are renamed. You get the gist.

Do you think selling corporate advertising space in public schools is appropriate?

If they were REALLY hurting, I'd say "well, you do what you gotta do."

I don't believe that they are really hurting. They THINK they are...because for a couple of decades now "Fer the Chirren!" has been the excuse for every other tax hike and bond referendum... we've been throwing money at the problem of education, thinking that enough money solves everything.

It doesn't. Nor does quadrupling the teacher's paperwork load. Nor does doubling the size of the administrative (non-teaching) staff.

We would do better to figure out what isn't working, and try something different.

Once upon a time, the only thing you needed for a school was a teacher, a student, something to write on, and a place to sit out of the weather. Nowadays you might add to that a computer and a few books.

We spend too much on things that are unnecessary to education, like two bureaucrats for every real teacher; fancy buildings that look like the sort of universities where only the rich kids can afford tuition; sports stadiums big and fancy enough for a college; and enough Fed-rule-compliance-paperwork to kill a whole forest for paper to write it all on.

Then when the budget cuts come, what's the first thing that gets cut? Not the frivolities or excesses, no.... not the bureaucracy or their bloated salaries.... no the first thing they cut is the real TEACHERS. Seen it happen. Ticks me off.

So I have a hard time believing they are hurting that much. Do they still have sports programs? Yes? Then they aren't hurting... they just think they are.

 

[WI Crippler]

This Sex education course is provided to you by Trojan Condoms. Are you a Trojan Man?

 

[Cold Highway]

If every other financial avenue has been explored then yes but Im willing to bet that these districts havent. If they still have sports, music, art and other non-essential courses then I would say no.

 

[MaggieD]

Many school districts in Illinois are hurting due to fiscal cutbacks, and the hurt is only going to get worse as the state attempts to rectify its huge budget deficit.

One school district is exploring selling advertising space to corporations within its schools. In the lunchroom, and just about anywhere. On your locker door there may be an advertisement for McDonalds. Open your locker and there is another for Adidas. An iPhone banner hangs in one hallway, a US Cellular banner in another. The school auditorium and sports stadium are renamed. You get the gist.

Do you think selling corporate advertising space in public schools is appropriate?

I voted yes. Frankly, I like the creativity of it. I think we'd all agree that, at least in high school, these kids represent a powerful discretionary spending demographic. From a business standpoint, it certainly makes perfect sense. And if we're going to educate our children to be perfect little consumers for the sake of our economy down the road, hey, start bombarding them with their "Wish List" early. Maybe it'll even motivate a number of them to strive for better things in their lives so they can have better things.

I also like the idea that school boards are being creative in raising revenue. Corporate sponsorship. Has a nice ring to it. Homeowners in Illinois are already getting hit with large tax burdens where 73% of their real estate taxes go to pubic schools. My 1200 s.f. home in suburban Chicago has a tax bill of $4,000. Pretty steep and rising.

Now if the legislature in Illinois doesn't continue to shirk their duty and refuse to address the massive teacher pension scandal in our state, we just might get out of this mess.

 

[MaggieD]

If every other financial avenue has been explored then yes but Im willing to bet that these districts havent. If they still have sports, music, art and other non-essential courses then I would say no.

Sports, music and art are far from non-essential courses in human development, Chevy. It's not the types of classes they're teaching. It's not these programs that are responsible for the run-away spending in Illinois schools.

It's the bureaucracy...it's teacher's salaries...it's their pensions.

 

[TacticalEvilDan]

On principle, I'd be against it. Public schools should be 100% funded by the state, but if the state can't manage to keep the schools properly funded and they're in urgent need of more money, then I say go for it. They obviously need money and it has to come from somewhere, no? Either way the kids lose, so at least chose the lesser of two evils. Either they get a subpar education with obsolete tools, or they get bombarded with advertisement images in the one place that still sort of shielded them from that. :shrug:

This.

I hate the thought of advertising in our schools, but we should not let our schools fall apart on principle.

 

[TacticalEvilDan]

We would do better to figure out what isn't working, and try something different.

That. I doubt that the increasing number of kids graduating from high school unable to read has anything to do with whether or not we've got enough computers in school.

 

[digsbe]

I say no, and I'll say why because I feel school is solely for education and not to be a marketing gimmick. Schools aren't businesses, they are public services.

 

[Jucon]

Yes, I think it's a great idea. But the schools should use some discretion in which companies they choose to give ad space to.

I don't know how they would put ads IN people's lockers though. How does that work?

 

[Morality Games]

This is how it starts. You just know Coca-cola is going to be taking up the revisionist pen. "Our product did not contain ... coke."

 

[Tashah]

I don't know how they would put ads IN people's lockers though. How does that work?

Large and colorful adhesive stickers... bumper stickers on steriods.

 

[theangryamerican]

Large and colorful adhesive stickers... bumper stickers on steriods.

Honestly, I don't see a problem with it as long as some common sense is applied to the types of advertisements allowed. If it's not religious or political, I don't see the harm and it's a creative source of income for the school that might even push them to excel more in order to bring in better advertisers.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

I don't like it, it's completely inappropriate.
It's almost brainwashing, which in any other circumstance, would be morally reprehensible.

We spend, on average, 4x what was spent 30-40 years (adjusted for inflation) and we get the same results.
There is plenty to cut, without resorting to this.

 

[theangryamerican]

I don't like it, it's completely inappropriate.
It's almost brainwashing, which in any other circumstance, would be morally reprehensible.

We spend, on average, 4x what was spent 30-40 years (adjusted for inflation) and we get the same results.
There is plenty to cut, without resorting to this.

How is this any different than your kids seeing the same products advertised on TV? It's not exactly as if they're proposing that the highest bidder actually gets to re-write the curriculum.

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

How is this any different than your kids seeing the same products advertised on TV? It's not exactly as if they're proposing that the highest bidder actually gets to re-write the curriculum.

Captive audience, I can turn the TV off, can't do the same with the school.

 

[theangryamerican]

Captive audience, I can turn the TV off, can't do the same with the school.

Ok, I see your point. What about the billboard advertising the new car right across the street from your children's school?

 

[marduc]

How is this any different than your kids seeing the same products advertised on TV? It's not exactly as if they're proposing that the highest bidder actually gets to re-write the curriculum.

On TV sponsors wield a degree of power over content by whether or not they choose to advertise in certain programming. It is bad enough that idiotic politicians hold as much sway as they do over what gets taught in the school, but we should add potential threats from companies to withdraw sponsorship or advertising dollars unless subject x is portrayed this way, or includes this slant? Or risk having school boards tailoring their message and their approach to entice certain sponsors?

 

[Harry Guerrilla]

Ok, I see your point. What about the billboard advertising the new car right across the street from your children's school?

Meh, it's far enough away to not be considered constant exposure.

 

[marduc]

Captive audience, I can turn the TV off, can't do the same with the school.

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