By Kwasi Fraser

          Well, it seems that 2009 is no different from 2008 and the other years prior, meaning another hike in my property taxes to fund our school system.  Even with these hikes schools are still faced with significant shortfalls, just look at some of the real time comments posted on Samepoint at http://www.samepoint.com/real-time.php?q=School+Budget. 

So, I live in a relatively small town called Purcellville, it’s in Loudoun County Virginia.  It’s a great town rarely, in this days and age, would you find a major supermarket within few blocks of a working farm that is over 200 years old.  Well, we have that in Purcellville.  I’ll write more about my little town and that great farm another time let’s go back to the matter at hand, funding our schools. 

It seems each year our taxes increase to support the budgetary obligations of the school system, and even with these increases many schools are still forced to make cuts in certain school programs and even in academic staff.  Some districts have eliminated high school sports due to budget cuts. Frankly, I believe the current method of funding the school system has run its course and it is high time for another approach.  Don’t get me wrong; budget cuts are necessary at times. However, when there are financially viable alternatives we need to at least consider and assess them. One such alternative is to monetize certain assets of the schools to create revenue stream(s) to fund our schools.

The approach that I’m proposing is one that I have written about several months ago in my local newspaper.  This approach calls for schools to partner with major corporations that have large advertisement budgets such as Proctor & Gamble, AT&T, Time Warner and others.  Proctor & Gamble’s ad spend from January to September 2008 was $2.3 billion.  The D.C. schools’ budget gap of $40 million is less than 2% of Proctor & Gamble 2008 ad spend.  Many schools in my district have cut field trips that could have been easily sponsored for several years by a company like Proctor and Gamble in return for free publicity in the press and on T Shirts given to students during a sponsored field trip.  That’s a topic for another blog, think www.FieldTripSponsor.com, but I digress.

The schools across this nation have many highly visible assets that are advertisers’ dream.  As a taxpayer I am also an investor in the school system, as such, in addition to a quality education I’ll like to see a decent Return on Assets my tax dollars have placed into the school’s daily operation. The schools’ assets range from buses and buildings, to rooms and fields that are viewed by a rather captive audience each school day and at times on weekends.  Sure we can apply my proposal to the majority of these assets but let’s focus on the school buses for this writing.

The school buses are the most visible representation of the school, they are seen during on and off hours by thousands of eyes. Such intense visibility is an advertiser’s dream. Given this, the School Boards across this country need to develop a strategy to lease ad space on all school owned vehicles to generate ad revenues. I know there will be concerns around what items to advertise on the school buses, and the overall policing of the ad placement process.  But in these dire financial times we need to revisit this and work out ways for it to be effectively implemented.

This nation has a multi-billion dollar advertising industry and our school system has the vehicles that will drive in revenues for the advertisers and our schools.  I agree that placement of certain ads like junk food, for example, should be prohibited because it plays into the growing problem of obesity among our youth.  However, there are thousands of other beneficial products and services that can be advertised. For example, a company in Hanover, MD cleared off a part on their fleet of truck to place ads for Xerox, a company that produces office equipment for schools and our homes.  Again, in these difficult times we need to seek out opportunities and creative solutions for the financial challenges we face.  Budget cuts are not always the answer, let’s make use of our free market system, and in so doing let us not only teach capitalism but practice it, starting with our schools.