School bus advertising posed by Lamar legislator

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April 18, 2012

School bus advertising posed by Lamar legislator

By Kelsey Ryan Globe Staff Writer The Joplin Globe Wed Apr 18, 2012, 12:04 AM CDT

JOPLIN, Mo. — A bill that proposes allowing school districts to sell advertising on school buses has passed the Missouri House and has been referred to the Education Committee of the state Senate.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mike Kelley, R-Lamar, aims to help school districts recover additional funding. Fifty percent of the revenue from the advertising would have to go toward transportation costs.

“We continue to underfund the foundation formula due to the fact that the state has a balanced budget, and we can’t spend what we don’t have,” Kelley said. “If we’re going to continue to not give schools what we did in the past, we’re going to have to give them opportunities to make up the difference somehow.”

The bill would allow districts to lease space on the interior and exterior of school buses for advertising, and would require the State Board of Education to adopt policies. Certain kinds of advertising — including that involving alcohol, gambling, tobacco or sexual material — would be prohibited.

Joplin Superintendent C.J. Huff said he doesn’t support the idea of school bus advertising from a safety perspective.

“When cars are pulling around buses, I want them paying attention to children as opposed to ads,” Huff said. “I think there’s a potential safety issue by utilizing school buses as rolling billboards.

“I think that utilizing ads as a new source of revenue is counterproductive to the mission of schools. I don’t know that we need an advertising department. Our job is to educate kids, not seek advertising dollars to fund education.”

Huff also said he questions how effective the advertising would be in rural districts that may have higher transportation costs. The Joplin School District runs about 90 school buses. The district’s transportation costs have increased because it is busing several students who were displaced by the May 22 tornado, Huff said.

Carthage Superintendent Blaine Henningsen said his district might consider school bus advertising if the bill passes.

“We’ll take a wait-and-see approach,” Henningsen said. “I’d venture to say we would look into it. We don’t want to overlook any opportunity to generate revenue for our schools, but I can’t see it being a big moneymaker for the district.”

Carthage runs about 35 buses, Henningsen said. Instead of the bus advertising, legislators should look at other funding, such as increasing the cigarette tax or adopting an Internet sales tax, he said.

Carl Junction Superintendent Phil Cook said the school bus advertising issue is not at the top of his priority list. The district has about 32 buses that run regular routes, he said, so he is pessimistic about how much money the district could make from it.

“I don’t know if it’s going to pass,” Cook said. “I’m not so sure we don’t subject our kids to enough advertising already; we try to keep it a place of learning. If it were to pass, I couldn’t tell you what our board would do. We would probably just stay as is.”

The bill has been referred to the Senate Education Committee. Kelley said he hopes a hearing will be scheduled in the next few weeks.

Other states

Rep. Mike Kelley said the idea for introducing the bill came from one of his assistants, who read about such measures being implemented in other states. According to the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood’s website, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Tennessee, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Utah, Nevada and New Mexico allow advertising on school buses.

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School bus advertising posed by Lamar legislator

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