Missouri’s Lee’s Summit R-7 School District is weighing advertising on school buses as a revenue generator. The move would require passing enabling legislation by the Missouri General Assembly, and Rep. Mike Kelley, R-Lamar, has filed that bill.
Keith Asel, a regional bank president and member of an education funding subcommittee, told the Lee’s Summit Journal that “Seventeen states currently permit advertising on school buses,” with a typical revenue of between $2,500 and $5,000 per bus per year. The Colorado Springs, Colo. school district generates $40,000 a year from bus ads, but Summit R-7 expects to generate $3,750 from each of 147 buses, for around $550,000 per year.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed legislation a year ago, joining Arizona, Colorado, new Mexico, Tennessee and Texas, among other states that allow advertising. Alpha Media President Michael Beauchamp at the time told USA Today that his firm managed advertising on 3,000 school buses in 27 districts in Texas and Arizona. The firm and school districts generally avoided "beer, tobacco, politics, churches, anything sexual in nature." The Medford, N.J., school board policy prohibits bars, drug companies and religious organizations. As Asel observed, likely advertisers for Lee’s Summit are bank or insurance companies supporting education, with image ads.
Still, it’s a “lousy way to raise money,” complains Director Susan Linn of the Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-free Childhood. Advertising in schools and on school property “undermines parents who are trying to limit commercialism” in a child’s life. And she points out that the $40,000 Colorado Springs pulls in amounts to less than $1 a student, and falls far short of expectations. Still—$40,000 is a bargain for outdoor advertisers and a boon to a school district.