What are Some of the Ramifications of Corporate Sponsorships?
The GAO found that revenue from “the most common and lucrative type of commercial activities”-soft-drink sales through exclusive vending contracts and short-term fundraising events-represented only a small percentage of districts’ overall budgets (Shaul). Even though corporate sponsorship provides “just a drop in the bucket compared to the real needs of public education,” Fege and Hagelshaw (2000) warn that the cost may include a compromised learning environment, parental and community protest, and litigation. Commercial activities in schools can incur costs that outweigh their financial benefits. Sawicky and Molnar (1998) report, for example, what they claim is the true cost of Channel One, a daily televised ten-minute newscast beamed by satellite to some 12,000 secondary schools enrolling more than eight million students: “On average, twelve daily minutes of a secondary school’s time costs almost $158,000 a year. This cost is far in excess of both the total value of Channel One’s equ
