Texas Schools Look to Advertising to Fill Budget Gaps
The rooftop of a suburban high school is not a location that companies usually consider prime advertising real estate. But in Humble Independent School District, it may be. The district’s high school is directly in a flight path for Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport.
Although the rooftop plan has yet to come to fruition, Humble ISD has already sold the naming rights to nearly every piece of its football stadium, including the entryway, the press box and the turf. Its school buses carry advertisements for the Houston Astros and local hospitals, among others.
The school district is pioneering a ...
Comments (13)
Duane Florschuetz via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Disappointing reality with our public schools.
Joe Estep via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Sounds like a good idea. As much as the kids are on the web and watching TV to think this is going to hurt their self-esteem is just silly liberal nonsense.
Lawna Jocqui via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I could totally see Planned Parenthood taking out ad space! FAB IDEA!
Wilkins Micawber
This result of this practice is to blur the distinction between public institutions and the private sector. It is consistent with the dominant political ideology in the state of Texas: everything is for sale, and money talks.
None of these "advertisers" is doing this out of a sense of civic responsibility. They all expect something in return.
@ Joe Estep: it's not about the self-esteem of school children. It's about the continual erosion of our civic institutions and the transmogrification of quaint "liberal" concepts such as citizenship into rank consumerism. But what the hey, most politicians are little more than whoremongers; we might as well put our schools out on the streetcorners, too, and teach students from an early age that the only meaning in life is to be found in money and the marketplace, right?
Jalapeno Schwartz via Texas Tribune on Facebook
What next? Forcing teachers to be hookers cuz fat cats force cuts in school budgets?
Carolyn Mashburn
Of course this is a great idea! Schools need money; advertising is a part of 21st century life;therefore, ads on school buses are indeed the answer. I live in Kingwood where school bus advertising has been in effect since 2007. I see ads for doctors and dentists, decorators and realtors, day care centers and hardware stores. Not only am I NOT offended by their presence on the bus, I feel positively about them BECAUSE they are on the bus. THEY support our schools; why wouldn't I support them?
Jay Joiner via Texas Tribune on Facebook
General Foods Elementary, anyone?
Carol Jean O'Neil Goodwin via Texas Tribune on Facebook
I don't know about othere, but I have buses from San Marcos and from Guadalupe County (Navarre) running up and down my road all day long! How much does it cost to haul one or two students?i
Jay Joiner via Texas Tribune on Facebook
Moon Pie High?
gypsy314 ne
Another good reason to go to a voucher system. We need to put public schools on notice that there jobs are not secure that they will have to preform or move on.
Anyone BUT Obama and democrats!
jim stone
Biggest result of these school ad campaigns is they create confusion among most of the public that another crisis avoiding bonanza of a funding source has been discovered! Not so, This is like taking a half full coffee cup to a forest fire, "ain't going to help one whit".
Ever hear someone claim about how the lottery money was supposed to save schools but it was diverted to other things? Well the lottery money is all there, it is just that the politicos simply took away a similar amount of non-lottery revenue, thus creating a net zero result; lottery money goes to education but there is no additional funding. Oh well, I think most everyone who visits this site knows that our Texas "elected class" really doesn't support public schools for all the state's children, they are perfectly happy with which students are getting a decent education and which ones that aren't.
GS Crispus
The real issue here is that funding state services through property taxes, sales taxes, and gas taxes are a terrible idea. The tax structure in this state disproportionately squeezes the middle class and poor, shifting the tax burden away from the upper classes.
We need a progressive income tax in this state to more evenly distribute the burden of educating our children between all incomes.
Cassandra Andrews
We had Wooly's Custard in our high school, and it influenced my life is such a meaningful way. Okay, maybe I am lying. I had it every now and again, and I rarely eat ice cream as an adult. Having advertisements in a school is not going to alter the course of a child's future. We live in a society that is based in business development. While I honestly believe that part our educational deficit can be attributed to misappropriation of funds; this could be a valuable resource in districts, if done correctly. If it works, great; if not, the consequences will not take down the education system. I am just happy they are focused on finding solutions. If you are worried about the influence on children, express to them why we have to look for other options. Maybe they will learn the lesson of remaining out of debt.