A Way Of Raising Much-Needed Funds Pro-Advertising School Bus Ads Won’t Corrupt Children

The ad on the side of the school bus shows a teenager green and coughing and ostracized because he’s smoking a cigarette. The ad reads: “Smoking when you’re young isn’t cool; it’s stupid.”

Tobacco manufacturers, who insist they don’t target kids and, in fact, want to educate children about the dangers of smoking too young, paid a local school district $100,000 for the ad space. With the money, the district bought computers.

OK, OK so we’re engaging in some creative daydreaming here. But that scenario could come true if the Washington Legislature passes a bill that would allow advertising on school buses.

Critics of the bill worry that children will be further corrupted by ads placed on school buses. Kids’ brains already are so full of advertising, critics say, that it’s unfair to cram more in. But worrying about that is like worrying that we adults are being corrupted each day by ads on city buses, by seeing those smiling faces of the KXLY-TV anchors or those bank ads. It’s just not a problem.

The school-bus proposal is a good one. It would create a new source of revenue and it would help districts garner some control over their budgeting blues.

Now, school districts depend on the state and on district levies for revenue. But those two funding sources are constantly in peril. The state often is in a money crisis, and voters at the local level can express their frustrations - about young people, schools and society - at school levy election time.

Advertising on buses is not the solution to school-funding woes; state and district levy money always will be needed. But the advertising would give local school districts some control over raising much-needed money. The Colorado Springs School District, which pioneered school bus advertising in 1994, has raised about $54,000. That helped ease the blow of 10 levy failures in a row.

Another plus: local control. School districts would determine whether to accept advertising on buses. And if they do, districts would set the guidelines. They could veto advertising that promotes bad stuff for kids - violence, drugs and alcohol - and encourage ads with positive messages.

That’s not stupid. It’s cool. We hope this bill becomes law.

, DataTimes MEMO: For opposing view, see headline: A legislative failure to fully fund schools

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