would you like fries with that cap and gown?
This was a little news item from a couple of months ago that I forgot to post about. I just happened to stumble across it and I haven't heard anything about it since, so without further ado:
'Taco Bell High' or 'Wal-mart Public School' coming to Canada?
OTTAWA (AFP) - Canadian students could soon be graduating from "Taco Bell High" or "Wal-Mart Public School" if trustees here go ahead with a scheme to sell school naming rights to corporations to raise extra funds.
The proposal has pitted members of the cash-strapped Ottawa-Carleton District School Board with public education advocacy groups who fear it would jeopardize universal education.
"No one wants to go to Taco Bell High," Ellen Dickson, chair of the Ottawa Carleton Assembly of School Councils, told the daily Ottawa Citizen.
But proponents say it would help eliminate growing budget deficits at many of Canada's school boards, hit by rising enrollment and cuts in provincial funding.
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."
Is it me or is this ass backwards? That is to say, isn't it normally the US that's doing something predictably impulsive and volatile like this and my Canadian counterpart is looking across our shared border and saying, "dammit, what the fuck are you guys thinking?!"
The future?Anyways, obviously I don't want to see this happen in Ottawa or anywhere in Canada (and I don't think we will), but I am worried about corporations latching onto this concept and implementing it here in the States. After all, virtually all our municipal stadiums, arenas and other large venues are now named after telecom, banking, automotive or major retail corporations. For example, in Cincinnati we had to fight to name the football stadium after sports legend, Paul Brown, instead of US Bank, Kroger, Delta, Chiquita, Toyota or any of the other corporations headquartered or doing much of their business in the surrounding market. Furthermore, here inLos Angeles we have the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater which is one of a dozen venues in the US with Verizon's name slapped on the front (there are *two* in the nation's capital alone!) thus continuing the corporate quest to turn everything into a billboard.
This is not a school mascot.Do any of you remember that movie Demolition Man where, in the quasi-utopian future, Taco bell was the only restaurant left in existence? I feel like we're slipping into that future. I just hope we also don't end up in a society where the only acceptable form of music is old advertising jingles. Though, to be fair, the same people giving corporations too much power are also the same people who want to sanitize everythingin existence -- i.e. ultra-conservatives. So yeah, please keep this all in mind when you got out to vote for the next few decades. Otherwise get ready to call in a request for the Alka Seltzer theme song and I'll meet you in the Taco Bell piano lounge.
'Taco Bell High' or 'Wal-mart Public School' coming to Canada?
OTTAWA (AFP) - Canadian students could soon be graduating from "Taco Bell High" or "Wal-Mart Public School" if trustees here go ahead with a scheme to sell school naming rights to corporations to raise extra funds.
The proposal has pitted members of the cash-strapped Ottawa-Carleton District School Board with public education advocacy groups who fear it would jeopardize universal education.
"No one wants to go to Taco Bell High," Ellen Dickson, chair of the Ottawa Carleton Assembly of School Councils, told the daily Ottawa Citizen.
But proponents say it would help eliminate growing budget deficits at many of Canada's school boards, hit by rising enrollment and cuts in provincial funding.
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."
Is it me or is this ass backwards? That is to say, isn't it normally the US that's doing something predictably impulsive and volatile like this and my Canadian counterpart is looking across our shared border and saying, "dammit, what the fuck are you guys thinking?!"
The future?Anyways, obviously I don't want to see this happen in Ottawa or anywhere in Canada (and I don't think we will), but I am worried about corporations latching onto this concept and implementing it here in the States. After all, virtually all our municipal stadiums, arenas and other large venues are now named after telecom, banking, automotive or major retail corporations. For example, in Cincinnati we had to fight to name the football stadium after sports legend, Paul Brown, instead of US Bank, Kroger, Delta, Chiquita, Toyota or any of the other corporations headquartered or doing much of their business in the surrounding market. Furthermore, here inLos Angeles we have the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater which is one of a dozen venues in the US with Verizon's name slapped on the front (there are *two* in the nation's capital alone!) thus continuing the corporate quest to turn everything into a billboard.
This is not a school mascot.Do any of you remember that movie Demolition Man where, in the quasi-utopian future, Taco bell was the only restaurant left in existence? I feel like we're slipping into that future. I just hope we also don't end up in a society where the only acceptable form of music is old advertising jingles. Though, to be fair, the same people giving corporations too much power are also the same people who want to sanitize everythingin existence -- i.e. ultra-conservatives. So yeah, please keep this all in mind when you got out to vote for the next few decades. Otherwise get ready to call in a request for the Alka Seltzer theme song and I'll meet you in the Taco Bell piano lounge.