Savvy School or Capitalist Tool? By Kendra Mayfield
Mayfield writes, "The names of U.S. corporations are routinely splashed across the front of professional sports stadiums, from the Arco Arena to Enron Field to 3Com Park. Soon, a California school district could enjoy a similar fate."
Mayfield explains, "Officials in California's Belmont-Redwood Shores district are weighing a proposal to offer corporate and philanthropic sponsorships of the district's six elementary and middle schools to lessen the blow of statewide budget cuts. The proposal could bring as much as $1 million to the district, which stands to lose $4 million, or 20 percent, of its $20 million annual budget under Gov. Gray Davis' proposed spending plan."
Now, I'm not suggesting that selling school naming rights to the highest bidder is the best way to raise the funds needed for education. I cringe at some of the possibilities (McDonald's High School, Taco Bell Middle School, Coca-Cola Cafeteria), but I think we can learn some lessons from the concept. Perhaps there is a method of implementing sponsorship of educational programs with greater success for all parties involved. What if Dell and HP sponsored math programs? What if Apple, Sony, and TimeWarner sponsored the literary, art, and music programs? What if Medtronic, Boeing, and Merck sponsored the science programs?
How do we get corporations, who are clearing struggling with their own problems, to provide more support for the schools? What do corporations need from the schools or the students that is an acceptable trade for the parties involved in the partnership? How do school leaders connect up with the executives who have the power to implement these programs within their company and their community? Should schools partner with corporations in order to get the funding needed to get through the current budget situation? As a result will the state decide that funding schools is not necessary because the money is coming from private sources?
Ideas and comments welcome!
6:52:58 AM 
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