Flutterby™! : A teacher finds funding 2008-12-03 23:54:31.984378+00

A teacher finds funding

2008-12-03 23:54:31.984378+00 by JT 6 comments

In California, a major factor of a school's budget is determined by their results of STAR every year (Standardized Testing and Reporting) A cash-strapped teacher in a suburb of San Diego has begun to sell ads on the bottom of his exams to cover some costs of printing and such. I think it leads an ethical question of whether this money should be subtracted from their state funding, or whether schools should be allowed to provide similar practices to allow an increase in funding without affecting their state allowances.

Placed in comments for brevity.

I see it as different than selling ads in the yearbook, which isn't a required material for students... however I don't think STAR should determine a school's budget in the first place. This is just my opinion as a parent, but STAR just seems to have become teachers training students to take yearly tests for budget purposes instead of concentrating on their education and what's really important to their future or their needs as an individual. Could this be a potential solution? Privatized funding of public schools through advertising and other external profits not provided by the state or federal government?

A community in Mayberry called Signal Mountain has a private organization which make sure the students don't suffer from budgetary issues. Basically, the rich folks take care of their kids at their school and they raised about $4mil before it even opened to "fully equip" the school beyond what the county provided. I'm sure Lookout Mountain has a similar organization or two.

I see no difference between selling ads on tests and accepting donations and putting up plaques, bricks, etc at the school to show the donors.

The problem, of course, which arises with "privatized" schools is that the poor kid's schools won't get the ads because they and their parents aren't a good demographic (unless bonding companies, funeral homes, and ammo dealers buy ads, I guess.) We end up no better than we are now and I think there's "Life is unfair" thread already active.

Any different from the "Scholastic" catalogs which get passed around, or the beverages which get served in the school cafeteria? Seems to me the difference is that those things have been approved by the school board, and this is something done by the teacher to account for failings by the school board.

The valley we moved from had a large number of parents who withdrew their children from the STARS testing, because of qualms about teaching to the test, and the school had to make up the difference in other ways. That happened to be a fairly well off district, but I think they're still struggling with the issues.

Hmmm... Back in the day, round 'bout 88, we had these big posters in the cafeteria that featured "public service messages" and advertising. I'm sure it's worse now. I never appreciated the stupidity of the messages. Fortunately, I got out before they started D.A.R.E.

Don't get me wrong, I think bake sales, auctions, fairs, etc is a great way to raise money for schools. I also think teachers have enough to do already without having to worry about entertaining the community for support for children. D.A.R.E. programs are one thing.... "I'm lovin' it!" McDonald's posters or "Redbull gives you wings" ads are a bit different in my book though.

I saw on the news last night where his primary sales are to parents who want to put sayings on the bottom of tests, which seems great to me. Getting parents to support the schools is a wonderful idea. Getting businesses to support schools during fundraisers is great.. but selling advertising seems over the line to me personally.

As I think about it further, this is one of those "against it in principle, for it in practice" issues with me. I love the idea of parents and local businesses showing that they care about education. I love involving the community in the funding and in the notion that education is something that goes beyond the School Board meeting once every few and deciding how to parcel the dollars that the state sends them.

I cringe at the notion of Pepsi and Burger King logos watermarked into every sheet that gets handed out.

Since public education is basically a 13 year propaganda pitch it's hard for me to single out why that's bad when the local ice cream parlor is just fine with me, so clearly I've got some self-examination to work on...