In debate over school bus advertising, districts in state weigh money, message

Arkansas last year became the latest state to allow advertising on school buses, making available a new stream of revenue to enhance district budgets.

Placing ads on the all-yellow buses, however, has drawn opposition from some who consider the ads tacky, a potential distraction to drivers or an exploitation of children.

The Bentonville School Board is considering advertising on its buses after Superintendent Michael Poore proposed the idea last month. The board authorized Poore to seek bids from marketing companies that would sell and create the ads, but he is waiting to hear results before making a final decision.

Poore formerly worked for Colorado Springs, Colo., School District No. 11, which in 1993 was one of the first districts in the nation to put ads on its buses. He told the Bentonville board that based on discussions he's had with two companies, he believes the district stands to collect between $100,000 and $250,000 per year through bus ads.

Josh Golin, executive director of the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, said such an estimate is far-fetched.

Golin said he has studied school bus advertising for years and is aware of only one school district that has raised more than $100,000 in a year: the Clear Creek School District in Texas, a 103-square-mile district in the Houston area that Golin said raised about $110,000. Clear Creek's enrollment is more than 40,000 students, whereas Bentonville, a 143-square-mile district, has about 16,000 students.

"We have seen time and time again where the amount of revenue is overestimated," Golin said. "The brokers placing these ads consistently overstate the amount of income there will be. It's a real shame that the districts, when they're making these decisions, aren't often dealing with realistic numbers."

Nine other states allow advertisements on school buses: Arizona, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Tennessee, Texas and Utah, according to the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.

Arkansas became the 10th state last year when legislation sponsored by state Rep. Dan Douglas, R-Bentonville, was signed into law as Act 941.

Douglas said he decided to investigate school bus advertising for Arkansas after a meeting with Poore. After consulting with the state Department of Education and others, Douglas proposed his bill during last year's legislative session. There wasn't much debate over it, in part because it was optional for districts, he said.

"It's just another tool for their toolbox," Douglas said. "I hate to see opportunities limited because we're not willing to look at alternatives."

House Bill 1495 passed 80-3 in the House and 23-2 in the Senate, according to state records. The legislation stipulated that all revenue generated from school bus ads be used for school transportation purposes only. The law allowed Arkansas' Commission for Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation to set rules on bus ads.

The commission mandates that all ads be limited to the exterior of a bus on its rear quarter panels, starting at least 3 inches behind the rear wheel and not closer than 4 inches from the lower edge of the window line. Ads must be contained within a block 30 inches high and 60 inches wide.

The Blytheville School Board, which oversees a district of about 2,200 students in northeast Arkansas, last month approved a policy permitting advertisements on buses.

The policy states that the board itself will approve each ad before it is displayed.

No ads can be approved that are political or obscene, that promote drugs or alcohol, or that are "otherwise deemed to be inappropriate for minors."

Blytheville's original intent was to promote the district using student artwork and student and teacher success stories, according to Superintendent Richard Atwill.

"We may take sponsorships by local community stakeholders for the school ads, still thinking through those things," Atwill wrote in an email.

"I do not anticipate putting vendor or business ads initially, maybe later after we get experienced with the process and know the costs."

Blytheville is developing the procedures for ad placement and expects to begin advertisements by July 1. It is unclear how much money the district could make from the ads, Atwill said.

Bentonville School Board member Grant Lightle criticized the idea of bus ads.

"I think it would be embarrassing. It just looks, I don't know, ridiculous to me," Lightle said during a board meeting last month.

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood works to protect children from advertising, including school bus ads, Golin said.

"Children are very vulnerable to advertising, and the best defense they have against it is to turn it off," Golin said. "When you're putting advertising in places where children have to see it, they don't have that defense. It really exploits a captive audience of students."

When a school district puts an ad on a bus, it is saying it endorses that product or service for its students, Golin said.

"It ends up being the first and last message [students] receive from their school each day," he said.

Some believe the ads are one more distraction for drivers.

"If we have one accident caused by this, it's not worth the money," Lightle said.

The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services published a paper in 2011 outlining its opposition to school bus ads. Executive Director Charlie Hood said the association's position has not changed since then.

Although no data show that bus ads are distracting to passing motorists, there have been studies verifying the effects of driver distraction on motor vehicle crashes, according to the association's paper.

The distinctive features of a school bus -- yellow with flashing warning lamp systems and stop signal arms -- send a message to drivers that children are present and caution is required, the paper states.

"The displacement of school bus coloration and the potential increase to motorist distraction, a known cause of motor vehicle crashes, present a safety problem around school buses that cannot be ignored," the paper states.

The College Station, Texas, Independent School District implemented bus advertising five years ago. That move came in response to state budget cuts to public education, according to Chuck Glenewinkel, the district's director of communications.

The district of about 13,000 students now has ads on about one-fourth of its 80 buses, according to Glenewinkel's estimate. The ads bring in about $12,000 per year.

"It isn't a whole lot, but it's basically free money for us," Glenewinkel said.

Steep Creek Media of Humble, Texas, sells College Station's bus ads, which start at $125 per month. The district gets 60 percent of that.

The district has final say on what ads go on its buses. It has run ads from a variety of businesses.

"Car dealers, attorneys, restaurants, you name it," Glenewinkel said.

Glenewinkel dismissed concerns about safety. Texas A&M University, located in College Station, has many buses with ads all over them, he said.

"To me, it's no different than a billboard on the side of a road. There's really no evidence out there that it makes driving less safe," he said.

There was a bit of pushback from the public when College Station announced ads on its school buses, but that mostly dissipated when it became clear the district would not advertise anything considered inappropriate for children, Glenewinkel said.

"It hasn't been a big deal in our community," he said.

Metro on 02/15/2016

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