Teacher Sells Advertising on Tests
Categories: Education
While many of us have just recently started feeling the pinch of these tough tough economic times, teachers have been feeling it for some time. Slashed budgets and increased class sizes have many educators struggling to make ends meet in the classroom. But one teacher at Rancho Bernardo High School in California has come up with a unique way to stretch his ever-diminishing budget.When the Poway Unified School District cut teacher's printing budgets to $300 per two semesters, calculus teacher Tom Farber found himself more than $200 short of what he needs to print tests and handouts for his class. Rather than ask parents to chip in, he decided to reach out to area businesses and offer them the opportunity to advertise on his tests sheets.
His rates are reasonable - $10 for a spot on a quiz sheet, $20 for a chapter test and $30 for a semester final. He prefers to seeks out local mom and pop operations, but says he wouldn't rule out major retailers or chains. And his students seem to like it and look forward to the one-liners on the bottom of their test sheets. "It's really interesting to see what it is each time," said 16-year-old Kevin Change.
Farber's idea is working so well, he has more than made up for his budget shortfall. In fact, he's donating the extra money to the math department for other teachers to use.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
hall monitor 11-24-2008 @ 3:45PM
While I commend this teachers creativity for developing ways to get around the nation-wide budget crunches in our schools, I question what side-effects might result. Students already admit to not having a problem with this because they don't realize what they are being subjected to. My fear is that a slippery slope could develop where too many other aspects of school become controlled by advertisers.
Hall Monitor
http://detentionslip.org
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Fina 11-24-2008 @ 5:29PM
Gotta Love those Californians -
Signed,
A former Californian transplanted to NY
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Jenni 11-25-2008 @ 12:46AM
And if they just cut some of the salaries back of their administrators, it wouldn't have to come down to advertising on a test. While I do commend the inginuity, I am appalled that this is necessary. Our tax money is supposed to pay for these things in the classrooms. Too much of our money is wasted on rediculously high salaries in positions that are really not necessary.
The PUSD is guilty of it as well, I should know, I used to work there.
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Former sailor 11-25-2008 @ 10:13PM
Not all of the unneccessarily-high salaries go to administrators: MANY of our teachers either can't or won't teach, and receive high salaries to justify their lack of proficiency - the Peter Principle at work. As long as teachers have huge pay, great benefit packages, and, above all, practically-unbreakable tenure; and as long as many (most, in a lot of schools) high-school graduates can't do simple math or construct simple sentences with proper grammar and spelling; and as long as teachers and their unions fight tooth and nail to prevent their employers from demanding knowledge of their subjects and proficiency in teaching them (i.e.: graduates who can read simple instructions, fill out employment applications, and subtract 23 from 100 without a calculator), we will continue to get less bang for our buck! The Peter Principle says that work is accomplished by those employees who haven't yet reached their level of incompetence. The answer: when a teacher stops producing (see above), fire him and replace him with a lower-paid teacher who can still be effective.
This is a test (and a true story): I work for a supermarket. We recently sold ears of corn for 25 cents an ear. I asked three high school seniors who work in the produce department how much it would cost to buy a dozen ears. NONE of them even came close to the correct answer! They had absolutely no idea how to even calculate the total. Is this the fault of the parents, the teachers, the school system, the students, or the supermarket?
artprsn123a 11-26-2008 @ 12:19AM
You can not blame a teacher for a student's incompetence. We all do our best and for many it is not enough. Our accountability is now measured every eight weeks through benchmark testing. Teachers that don't "make the grade" are on administrator's hit lists. The days of slack teachers are long gone. Teaching has changed so much in the past decade that the average Joe citizen and the media do not have a clue! Shadow a teacher for a week, you might adopt a whole new appreciation for what we endure for the peanuts they pay. This year again...fifth year...no raise...and they decided not to give us our biannual step increase either. Now is when we need it the most. Unless you experienced the job first hand within the past ten years....STFU!!!!!!!!!
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Kathy 11-26-2008 @ 6:36AM
Thank you, artprsn! Misconceptions about how "easy" teachers have it have been around for a long time. Unfortunately, they're based on old stereotypes rather than the actual facts.
yishian 12-16-2008 @ 5:45PM
as a student at this school, i dont think people opposing this idea realize that 2/3 of the so called 'ads' are actually inspirational quotes from parents wishing their kids well. the ads are also from local 'mom and pop' type businesses that are connected to the school, and are owned or operated by the teachers students. its not like the teacher is selling full page or even quarter page ads to Nike or McDonalds. they dont take up more than two or three lines at the bottom of the page.
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