Commercialism in Schools

Businesses are increasingly making inroads into the classroom, particularly in underfunded schools. In exchange for advertising space and marketing research, businesses provide money, teaching materials, technology resources, and sports equipment. Since 1990, commercial activity in schools has risen 473 percent (Molnar and Reaves 2001).

The dramatic rise in commercial activities in schools has sparked intense public debate, triggering a U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) report and a spate of regulatory attempts at district, state, and federal levels (Shaul 2000).

Opponents to commercialism in the classroom view the practice as something akin to the Hansel and Gretel tale, in which companies offer nourishment to children, only to "cook" their minds with advertising and consume their attention, opinions, and money. Defenders, on the other hand, view these exchanges as natural symbiotic relationships that benefit both businesses and children. As the public debate intensifies over commercial activities in schools, cash-strapped districts are increasingly finding themselves caught in the middle.

This Digest offers an overview of commercial activities in schools, discusses ethical and legal issues, offers policy guidelines, and highlights strategies for negotiating contracts in line with the needs and values of schools.

What Types of Commercial Activities are Taking Place in Schools?

The GAO (Shaul) identified four types of commercial activities in schools:

• Product sales (for example, exclusive contracts for soft drinks) approach students as immediate on-site consumers and as future consumers. 
• Direct advertising (such as posters in corridors) approaches students as off-site consumers, future consumers, and consumer influencer, for example, influencing the purchasing decisions of parents and friends. 
• Indirect advertising (for example, educational materials sponsored by a corporation or trade association) approaches students as off-site consumers and future consumers. 
• Market research (taste tests, online profiling) approaches students as representative consumers, that is, consumers whose preferences have demographic significance for marketers.

Businesses often engage in two or more types of commercial activities in schools. For example, product sales such as exclusive vending contracts with soft-drink bottlers may be accompanied by the display of a corporate logo on vending machines. Or technology providers may place banner ads on education-oriented websites as well as conduct market research on students online.

What are Some of the Ramifications of Corporate Sponsorships?

The GAO found that revenue from "the most common and lucrative type of commercial activities"-soft-drink sales through exclusive vending contracts and short-term fundraising events-represented only a small percentage of districts' overall budgets (Shaul).

Even though corporate sponsorship provides "just a drop in the bucket compared to the real needs of public education," Fege and Hagelshaw (2000) warn that the cost may include a compromised learning environment, parental and community protest, and litigation.

Commercial activities in schools can incur costs that outweigh their financial benefits. Sawicky and Molnar (1998) report, for example, what they claim is the true cost of Channel One, a daily televised ten-minute newscast beamed by satellite to some 12,000 secondary schools enrolling more than eight million students: "On average, twelve daily minutes of a secondary school's time costs almost $158,000 a year. This cost is far in excess of both the total value of Channel One's equipment ($17,000) and the annual rental value of the equipment ($4,000) in every state."