Tough economic times require some creative ideas, even in one of the state’s most affluent school districts. However, just because an idea is creative does not make it a good one.
Just before Christmas, members of the board of education for Beechwood Independent School District in Fort Mitchell suggested a new way to generate revenue from the district: Place two standard-sized billboards on unused school property that faces busy Interstate 75.
The school system could generate $3 million in new revenue over the next 20 years by selling advertising on the two billboards, said Beechwood school board chairman Mike Dammert.
Beechwood would hardly be the first public school to generate income from advertising. Many schools sell advertisements for football, basketball and other athletic arenas with the revenue typically going to subsidize the schools’ athletic programs, and advertisements are sold for yearbooks, school newspapers, play programs and other similar things for school functions. Why not generate income from billboards?
However, the idea is opposed by the Kenton County Mayors Group, an organization made up of the elected leaders of cities within the urban northern Kentucky county. The mayors said the billboard would be “visual clutter” and would go against more than 30 years of county zoning regulations that ban new billboards.
So the chances of the school district getting money from billboard range between slim and none.
However, in saying the school district’s lack of funding lies with the state, Fort Mitchell Mayor Tom Holocher demonstrated just how little he understands the Kentucky Supreme Court decision that led to the approval of the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act.
“Quite honestly, I think the fault lies with the state,” Holocher said at a recent city council meeting. “The better the school system you have, you ought to get more money, but no, (the state) wants to bring everybody down to a common denominator.”
In the days before KERA, the amount of money spent per student in wealthier districts like Beechwood Independent far exceeded what was spent on students in poorer districts simply because the rural districts lacked the tax base to generate the same level of funding that richer districts could generate. That, by its nature, created unequal funding for public education throughout the state and led the state’s highest court to declare Kentucky’s system of school funding unconstitutional.
Since KERA, funding for public schools has been equal whether the student lives in Fayette County or Letcher County. That’s the way it should be. Where one is born should not destine that child a substandard education. While Beechwood is unlikely to generate one dime from billboard advertisement, that income should not be necessary. After all, it is tax dollars paid by people throughout Kentucky that are re supposed to properly fund public schools, not advertising revenue.
