School Board Considers Deal to Swap Ads for Computers

April 7, 2000

School Board Considers Deal to Swap Ads for Computers

By EDWARD WYATT

task force of New York school officials and executives of several big computer companies is proposing to distribute laptop computers to city schoolchildren and to create a school Web site that would give the companies advertising space in exchange for services and equipment.

Education Column
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The plan, to be considered at next Wednesday's board meeting, comes two months after the board approved a proposal to allow corporate donors to have their names attached to school classrooms, libraries or athletic fields in recognition of donations to pay for the facilities.
Board members say the plans, which they acknowledged are unusual for a publicly financed school system, are a way of attracting dollars for programs that could not be paid for with taxes.

Irving S. Hamer, a board member who oversees the task force that has explored the Web site idea for nine months, said he thought the laptop distribution and Internet proposal would be approved by the full board. "This is a major shift in the ways we think about teaching and learning and how we fund these activities," he said.
But critics argued that the two initiatives put the Board of Education well down the road toward being a revenue-generating, advertising-driven entity.
"We have a great deal of concern about about the negative potential of using children to promote commercial concerns and using class time for things that could be considered as advertisements," said Vicki Rafel, the vice president for legislation at the National PTA.
The board hopes to expand the use of the Internet in the classroom by creating a central site, known as a portal, through which students could receive homework assignments from teachers, who could swap lesson plans and communicate with parents and school administrators.
William C. Thompson Jr., president of the Board of Education, said he, too, thought that the full board would approve the Web site plan. "It is creative and shows a way that we can move the school system into the 21st century," he said.
Building a Web site that offers advertising to corporate partners is the only way to get their assistance in building and maintaining the system, Mr. Thompson said. Representatives of I.B.M., Cisco Systems and Toshiba America are members of the task force.
Beginning in fall 2001, laptop computers would be distributed each year to all 85,000 fourth graders at greatly reduced cost to parents. Students would be able to click on commercial logos on the school Web site to buy products. Part of each sale would go to the board.
The plan is thought to be the first of its kind by a public school system in the United States. But by embracing commercial enterprise in a way that is anathema to many publicly financed institutions, the plan is a reminder of previous efforts to provide advertising-supported information to schools for use in the classroom. Some of those programs, like the Channel One television network, attracted fierce opposition from educational leaders and parents, who said that such commercial-laden programs wasted classroom time and tax dollars.
Some education groups say that in a world where further tax increases are unlikely, partnerships between school systems and private enterprises are the only way to raise money for new technology programs. "In a new economy, looking for new opportunities to raise capital is just a survival mechanism," said Cheryl S. Williams, the director of educational technology programs for the National School Boards Association.
Moreover, supporters say, the primary beneficiaries of such a program would be children from poorer families, who are less likely to have computers and who have little exposure to new technology.
"If somebody came to me out of the blue and said there should be an advertising-based portal for New York City schools, I would have said that is not the way to go," said Robbie McClintock, co-director of the Institute for Learning Technology at Teachers College at Columbia University and a member of the task force that explored the proposal.
"But as a way of contending with the issue of limited resources and getting well-developed educational programs, it is something you can make a much better case for," Mr. McClintock said. "It is being voiced as a means of bridging the digital divide."
Dr. Hamer said the computers would likely be leased to students at a discount, perhaps with the cost scaled in some way to a family's income. The plan is to offer updated technology to older students until, after nine years, all students in grades 4 through 12 would be using their own computer in school. The computers would be replaced or updated every few years.
Many of the plan's details remain to be worked out. Some of the proposals will require an open, public bidding process, for example, while others can be enacted under powers already granted to the board and the chancellor's office.
Aware of the potential opposition to financing the computers through the sale of advertising, the task force has been careful to avoid the use of that word, instead using more neutral words of the Internet industry, like co-branding and sponsorship.

A way of finding money for programs that could not be paid for with taxes.

In addition, Dr. Hamer emphasized that commercial aspects of the system would be strictly separated from material for classroom use.
He compared the program to the corporate sponsorship of public television programs, where a company's name and logo are featured but no specific products are mentioned.
"It will offer us the opportunity to say to General Electric, 'Please don't advertise your products here, but do some co-branding with us, tell your education story and provide some content,' " Dr. Hamer said.
Dr. Hamer said the Web site would also try to sell fixed spots to companies like Barnes & Noble, and if a user clicked on the company's logo and bought a book, the board would receive a portion of revenue.
That way of generating revenue, known as an affiliate program, is common in the Internet world and is used by growing numbers of schools, Little Leagues and other community organizations trying to raise money.
The difference between those programs and the Board of Education's proposal is that the board believes companies will pay it to secure a dedicated spot on its portal, because the 1.3 million pupils, teachers and administrators in the school system are a large, captive audience.
The attraction of that captive audience was also behind the Board of Education's earlier proposal, passed in February, to name parts of schools, particularly sports fields and stadiums, after corporate or individual donors.
David Klasfeld, deputy chancellor for operations, said the proposal came about after the board was approached by a private civic group called Take the Field, which is seeking to raise money to rebuild city-owned athletic fields.
The establishment and naming of whole schools is reserved for the Board of Education and is not affected by the naming policy. But sports fields, libraries, cafeterias or classrooms can be named by the chancellor's office in recognition of donors, Mr. Klasfeld said.
"We do have a significant need for the rehabilitation of a lot of these facilities," Mr. Klasfeld said.
Mr. Thompson, the Board of Education president, said the naming resolution was a way for the board to be creative in raising money.
"Is it more of a commercialization?" he asked. "A little bit. But we're also being realistic and attempting to do things that generate additional revenues that go directly to students and give them opportunities that more affluent school districts have access to."

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