There has been a lot of discussion in my local area about high schools dropping sports programs due to budget cut backs. I am not going to go into why I think this is wrong (which I do on so many levels), rather I am going to propose a solution.
Perhaps we should open up aspects of our school systems to marketers. It’s already common to see signs for local businesses on high school football fields, why not open it up a bit further and let marketers fund our sports programs in other ways? I am sure companies targeting our youth would pay top dollar to occupy the space where our young people spend the majority of the day. Let Lamar, Clear Channel and other outdoor advertising companies rep entire school districts and sell inventory with a professional sales force.
Sponsored Classroom
We should explore other alternatives before we kill high school sports and other extracurricular activities. I would rather have our teenagers exposed to a little more advertising on and off the field than have no field at all.
I mocked up both of these images (neither of them are real).
You are missing the point. Cutting sports is a marketing plan. honestly, sports are small part of the overall budget of school systems. Many of the sports are self funded by way of ticket sales, fundraisers and some of the very marketing sales you propose. Check out the bulletins, newsletters, yearbooks and even report cards. Seminole County got busted for dropping a Mickey D’s ad on their report cards. Some schools even have billboards on campus with sponsors.
While those are minor compared to what you propose, schools are not capable of handling marketing like that. Already companies make too many decisions in the system and nobody is able to control them. The same textbook company that wrote the FCAT was the only one selling textbooks for the test intially. “Sponsors” help dictate the food sold in cafeterias regardless of quality or nutritional value. We are attached financially to soft drink companies for revenues streams despite the detrimental effect on health.
While you would be able to direct many appropriate sponsors in good places, I don’t think non-business people can handle the negotiations. Money starved administration would find themselves trapped in a faustian problem with one bad ad campaign.
Besides, as a teacher, my inbox starts the year filled with posters like you show in the second picture for free. Nike, Microsoft, Apple, Coke, etc. We hang them for free cause they look cool. The ads are already there. But we have control because we are not financial obligated to hang something we disagree with.
I do like that some one is finally talking about diversifying the revenue stream with out raising property taxes. You should stop there.
You know, Ted, I totally agree and think if schools (in general) were run more like a private enterprise than a government supported entity, they’d see the missed opportunity all around them.
@Tim:
I agree that non-business people shouldn’t be involved in the sale of ad space. I propose that the entire inventory for a school be sold to a single media company (like a Clear Channel). The school system would be guaranteed a certain amount of revenue and Clear Channel would deal with all advertiser relations.
By hanging posters for free you are giving away inventory and those advertisers know it (that’s why they send them). That wall space should be monitored and monetized, with a single point of ad content approval. As it stands now advertisers are getting a free ride and individuals teachers are making the call on what messages are appropriate or “cool”.
If Mickey D’s wants to drop a few million into the school system to be on report cards I say let them. I’ll take every dime we can pump into our education budget.
@Ted Murphy:
First, the last meant to say “You shouldn’t stop there”.
But when you take money from private enterprise they then have a say over what content can be delivered. There isn’t enough guarantee that the educational message is clear to students. It is hard enough to maintain an environment focused on the task but to have someone else dictate what it will look like and what message is delivered while trying to struggle past a students outside life [the biggest issue in schools] is too hard. As far as individual teachers controlling what’s cool, would you let some one come and dictate the decor and function of the messages on the wall of your business, even if it might run counter to what you might be trying to do. The individual teacher is trying to create an environment that best fits how they teach, what their students are like and most importantly, what the subject matter is like. Clear channel might not be privy to that nor have the time to custom fit the ads to 3to 10k classrooms.
And Kim, every body says that [private business like] but there hasn’t been a privatization experiment that remotely worked. The problem is that unlike a business that can ditch its unprofitable margins, schools can’t. The disabled and high needs kids drag the budgets into the pits. And then you get the problem that one parent can raise enough trouble with one lawyer in a fifteen minute meeting to rip out all ads from and campaign they might object to. No business runs under the threat of one customer.
I fear it would begin to look a little like that movie, Idiocracy. The flood gates would open and there would be as much take about the marketing and the need to make sure it is there as there would be about educating kids.
What is needed is not the selling off of schools but freedom to manage personnel effectively and aggressively [union issues], the need to change methods and practices on the fly to best meet the changing needs of the customer, the practice of true metrics and ROI analysis. Things business has been good at but instead the conversation is always budget [how to cut mainly].
All that said, I would love to actually hear you present the idea to a district. There is not enough real engagement by innovative business people like you with the system. I would say Ed is ten years behind the trend line on every angle. While the idea might not be accepted wholesale but maybe a relationship with someone like you and others would bear fruit that would really shake the tree.
@Tim:
I have no idea who to talk to but if you want to set something up with the local school board I would be happy to pitch the idea.
Ted – its a great idea and one that I first heard a college Sophmore present at a elevator pitch competition over a year ago now. She won first place. Her idea was not so much focused on sports, but on the schools in general and the proceeds would go towards buying more supplies and things that teachers needed rather than them having to use their personal money to buy them.
The main concern that the judges of the pitch competition had with the idea was safety of the students riding the buses. The reason that school buses are bright yellow (the color is actually called School Bus Yellow most of the time) is for safety and so that they can be seen. If you start covering them in advertisements you loose that and make them blend in more with the surroundings.
However, I still love the idea.
@Dorm Room Biz:
It would be interesting to compare safety ratings of normal public transportation buses and school buses. I wonder how big of a difference it would be?
I think one of the reasons school buses may be safer is because they have the ability to stop traffic in both directions.
@Ted Murphy:
I will find out and drop you a line. Would be interesting to see what they would say.
PayPerLearn….
How backwards is this country? We throw obscene amounts of money at a failing war on drugs, yet cut worthwhile school programs. Art and music courses have been at the mercy of budget cuts since I was in high school and now they are cutting sports. In case anyone on the Orlando school board doesn’t know, we aren’t exactly the thinnest of nations.
In the brilliant documentary, “Super Size Me”, Morgan Spurlock points out that agriculture and food corporations are making a handsome profit off feeding our kids unhealthy food. I wonder how much revenue school lunches in Orlando generate for these corporations and our school system?
It should be monetized — it’s not like corporations haven’t gotten free advertising in schools anyways. How many of them have Pepsi or Coke machines in the lunch room?
Why not take the process a step further and outsource some things – like allow Subway to lease space for a small counter service store?
Purists may say don’t expose kids to corporate advertising in schools, but they see it everywhere anyways. How may fast food places open near high schools? These kids go off campus to eat there anyways. Why not allow these corporations, within reason, to pay to access the kids in a way that actually funnels money back into the schools.
If dropping a McD’s logo on a report card means kids can still enjoy art & music & extracurricular events, I say go for it. If letting Nike logo up a bus or track field means after school programs that enrich the kids lives get funded, I say where’s the harm? If you, as a parent, are worried your kids might be influenced by these ads and sponsorships, then it’s your job as a parent to talk to your kids about this, just like you (hopefully) do with drugs and sex.
And regarding the school bus safety thing, the yellow can still be visible if the screenprint of the ad is limited to just windows or even if the ad itself contains the yellow background and the ads don’t cover up the words “schoolbus”.
Bottom line is the kids of today are the future leaders of this nation. I would rather them have a well-rounded education courtesy of a few ads and sponsorships than have them constantly being on the losing end of a government that never seems to put them first when it comes to budgets.