Day #033: Sell naming rights to public schools
An unorthodox idea for funding RPS capital improvements in the short-term.
Inspired by Michael Bierut’s 100 Day Project, 100 Days to a Better RVA strives to introduce and investigate unique ideas to improving the city of Richmond. View the entire project here and the intro here.
- Idea: Sell naming rights to Richmond Public Schools.
- Difficulty: 3 — It’s tough to imagine this sitting well with students or parents.
Style Weekly captured the attention of Richmond in April with their article, “Caving In: Dead rodents, moldy curtains and black ooze. Inside Richmond’s worst public school building.” The article was a sobering piece that confirmed many peoples’ suspicions about the quality of Richmond Public School’s infrastructure.
Last year the capital improvement budget for RPS was less than $1 million. This year’s has been increased to $7 million with $1 million earmarked for buying buses. But according to an 11-page report by the school system’s new chief of operations, an additional $29 million is needed for immediate issues facing 44 RPS buildings.
Something has to be done.
Last week another story caught headlines: Walmart Coming to VCU. While VCU is “excited” about bringing the 4,100-square foot mini big-box to campus, an extremely large number of people are upset.
Walmart has an image problem in Richmond. RPS has a buildings issue in Richmond. What if businesses like Walmart could make cash donations in exchange for naming rights at public schools? For example, a new roof and HVAC system would result in Thompson Middle Schools sponsored by Walmart.1 In the case of the roof, Walmart could be progressive and settle for a 50-foot wide “Walmart” on the roof that would be visible from Google Maps–that’d at least catch some headlines.
In 2012, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell tried selling the naming rights to roads as a way to cover part of an estimated $70 billion shortfall in transportation funding. The Governor’s plan, though, was unfortunately packaged as an unrealistic choice between naming rights and raising taxes.
In Richmond, this plan could be presented as a choice between waiting for City Council and the Mayor to expand funding or the Richmond School Board partially taking matters into their own hands in the short-term. At the very least, it would attract attention to the problems.
What is the cost of our commercial culture? Plastering the interior walls of schools with billboards for Cookie Crisp and Tonka trucks probably isn’t the best way to foster an atmosphere of education. Lines would have to be explicitly drawn ahead of time, but what’s more distracting: an exterior Walmart sign or ooze dripping from the ceiling mid-class.
Is the desire to honor our regions heroes or keep civic institutions free from the labels of corporations valuable enough to forgo income when the city has been otherwise unable to properly fund the school system? Is upholding an idealistic vision of our civic institutions more important than the lives of 23,000+ students? If Richmond can’t find the money in the budget, then it’s time to explore every unorthodox method for finding funding for turning our schools into–at minimum–functioning institutions.
I’m undoubtedly sensitive to the concerns. When I was sixteen I would have thrown a fit if I had attended Walmart James River High School, but my school’s roof wasn’t falling down. The asymmetry of school quality is frustrating, but it is a lifetime away from changing. It’s time for Richmond Public Schools to seek out alternatives and literally plug the leaks in the short-term.
Love this idea? Think it’s terrible? Have one that’s ten times better? Head over to the 100 Days to a Better RVA Facebook page and join in the conversation.
Photo by: taberandrew
- RPS would have to be sensitive to the school board policy which requires hearings for school names. Furthermore, school names can’t change for 30 years after being named or renamed. ↩
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Aaron Williams
Aaron Williams loves music, basketball (follow @rvaramnews!), family, learning, and barbecue sauce.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
I’ve long thought this idea a good one, except for a brand’s unwillingness to have their name tied to a failing school. But to start off with naming the football field or auditorium for example, would be a great way to start improving facilities. Also, the older school buildings need to start using historical tax credits when renovating. If commercial builders can acquire them, why can’t a school?
@pageh – the tax credits are a nice thought, but I think there are some pretty strongly worded/crafted rules to prevent public and/or nonprofit use of the credits.
The RPS Facilities Task Force has received a briefing on historical tax credits for renovations. They are possible, even likely, but require intense knowledge of bureaucratic rules to pull off.
Entertaining article.
I would have taken: Martin’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School over the deplorable conditions that citizens were subjected to in that old building!
Naming rights may be a bit unnerving, but an adoption program may be something to look into. Altria’s engineering launches a joint school at John Marshall High School. VCU School of the Arts builds classroom space and gallery space in George Wythe Hugh School “of the arts. Capital One School of Business at A new and improved Huguenot High.
I don’t know the logistics, but it’s a thought.
Bad idea. The lesson the kids will learn from this is that EVERYTHING is for sale.
In other states, utilities are putting solar on school roofs. New Jersey, for example, has a lot of ‘solar schools’. This helps with the school’s power bills and creates more distributed, renewable energy which makes the grid more resilient. It also effectively makes the schools possible emergency shelters and increases community pride in the schools. We need leaders who are not afraid of Dominion’s lobbying power and willing to challenge their deliberate discouragement of community solar power and progress.
Yes, there’s clearly no way “Environmental Science presented by ExxonMobil” or “Hobby Lobby’s SexEd” could go wrong.
RPS’ funding problems are simple: Clean house in the central office and make sure the money hits the classrooms instead of getting passed around the admin offices. Make sure capital budget funds are used for capital items and that new technology purchases don’t sit unused in a warehouse or storage room for 4 years. Or we could cook up harebrained schemes designed to take us down the clickhole. Either way.