Spring Break
Schools wearing labels
When brand name labels help, not hurt
Stephanie Fu
Issue date: 2/19/09 Section: Opinion
Waiting in line at the post office, I overheard a lady in front of me talking on her phone with someone very loudly. Not knowing a lot of background information about her or with whom she was speaking, I heard a good bit of her conversation about her friend's child who attended an elementary school, somewhere out of state, and was embarking on a new way of fundraising for the school. Apparently, the school her friend's child attended was beginning to brandish some of their county school buses with company logos.
Some schools throughout the nation, particularly in smaller or more rural counties, are starting to show interest in this new way of collecting extra funds for schools by allowing companies to place their logos on school buses or implant certain products in the school. The latter has been occurring for quite some time; one example being the Pepsi products at ECU.
However, I was surprised at how outraged the lady in line at the post office sounded. She was furious and said that the children were being "exploited and taken advantage of by these companies."
Traditional fundraising techniques that are prevalent in public schools and require the participation of students are Scholastic book sales, catalog sales featuring coupons from local merchandisers and the sales of food products like candy bars for the arts department. Some elementary and middle schools encourage students to sell a certain amount of tickets or products from a selected catalog to earn entry into a huge end-of-the-year carnival. This carnival appeals to students because they feature games and prizes, and if a student sells the most among his peers, he gains entry to the special area of the carnival with extra prizes.
So what is the point of all this crazy, nonsensical fundraising that seems to "exploit" children?
The funds gathered in from fundraising actually go directly back toward the schools in a given county. Most of the funds that public schools receive, which go toward teacher salaries, textbooks or classroom resources, come from property taxes within the county. This means that counties that are more affluent or have a higher cost of living are more likely to generate more property taxes themselves to go toward public schools. Other counties that are more rural and do not house as many people will have a lesser amount of gross property tax to go toward their public schools. While some federal aid is reserved for counties that do not generate as much property tax in comparison to others, it is not always guaranteed or distributed fairly.
Some schools throughout the nation, particularly in smaller or more rural counties, are starting to show interest in this new way of collecting extra funds for schools by allowing companies to place their logos on school buses or implant certain products in the school. The latter has been occurring for quite some time; one example being the Pepsi products at ECU.
However, I was surprised at how outraged the lady in line at the post office sounded. She was furious and said that the children were being "exploited and taken advantage of by these companies."
Traditional fundraising techniques that are prevalent in public schools and require the participation of students are Scholastic book sales, catalog sales featuring coupons from local merchandisers and the sales of food products like candy bars for the arts department. Some elementary and middle schools encourage students to sell a certain amount of tickets or products from a selected catalog to earn entry into a huge end-of-the-year carnival. This carnival appeals to students because they feature games and prizes, and if a student sells the most among his peers, he gains entry to the special area of the carnival with extra prizes.
So what is the point of all this crazy, nonsensical fundraising that seems to "exploit" children?
The funds gathered in from fundraising actually go directly back toward the schools in a given county. Most of the funds that public schools receive, which go toward teacher salaries, textbooks or classroom resources, come from property taxes within the county. This means that counties that are more affluent or have a higher cost of living are more likely to generate more property taxes themselves to go toward public schools. Other counties that are more rural and do not house as many people will have a lesser amount of gross property tax to go toward their public schools. While some federal aid is reserved for counties that do not generate as much property tax in comparison to others, it is not always guaranteed or distributed fairly.
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