If you think corporate naming rights were just for ballparks guess again. Officials in Canada are giving serious thought to offering their school names' to corporations like Wal-Mart and Taco Bell to raise funds for a system that is sorely lacking funds. The public is outraged that their school district in Ottawa would even consider such a thing.
From the AFP:
The Ottawa school board, for example, passed a 634.8-million dollar (595-million US) budget last week, but even after deep cuts, was left with a deficit of 6.2 million dollars (5.8 million US).
Ottawa trustee Riley Brockington told the Citizen in support of the plan: "I have no problem with the Loeb Library or the Cognos Centre of Performing Arts," invoking the names of a grocery chain and a software firm, respectively.
But Annie Kidder of the parents group People for Education countered: "The minute you end up with a Wal-Mart Public School ... you are taking away the notion of the importance of public education, which is to provide every child, no matter where they live or the income of their parents, with an equal chance at success."
Corporate names need to be kept as far away from public education as possible. Although there probably wouldn't be a mandatory class to learn about all the great things that Wal-Mart does for society, the effects would still be there. Increased marketing and a general push towards heavy consumerism would tend to be a given. Students need to learn about language, math, science and the arts, not how to get a good buy at the expensive of slave labor in a far away country.
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