School Bus Advertising Considered

Driving through town one day, San Marcos school board member Mike Preston was pondering the ever-increasing costs of his district’s transportation program. Then, he pulled up beside a North County Transit District bus, and the idea hit him like a cold Pepsi: Advertising.

Transit districts have sold space for ads on the sides of their buses for years. Why couldn’t school districts do the same and use the money to help make up the budget shortfall?

The reason, Preston soon learned, is that state law doesn’t allow it.

Now, Preston and the district are sponsoring legislation that would allow school districts to sell advertising on their buses. Preston figures the district could earn $20,000 to $100,000 a year if the bill became law, depending on how many other districts would participate in a joint advertising program.

“Some people say it’s taboo to have advertising on our buses, that it’s kind of gauche,” Preston said in an interview. “But we already do have advertising in the schools, whether we like it our not. On our stadium scoreboards, marquees, our yearbooks have advertising, the student newspapers. You do already have advertising that goes on.”

Although the bill, introduced by Assemblyman Robert Frazee (R-Carlsbad), would allow advertising in any form, Preston said he expects that amendments will eventually limit the kind of ads school districts could accept. If not, districts themselves would probably place restrictions on the contents of the billboards, he said.

“We will retain some control, and we will be able to object to certain things--cigarettes, alcohol, Playboy,” Preston said. “We’re going to keep it pretty pure.”

Preston said he has heard interest in the idea from other school districts, and he plans to take the concept “on the road” to other school boards in the county. Because San Marcos has only about 25 buses, he hopes to form a consortium of districts that could cooperate to draw major advertisers interested in covering a broad area.

The only opposition to the bill so far has come from the California Highway Patrol, which objects to any form of advertising on school buses.

“It’s a safety issue,” CHP spokesman Kent Milton said. “If you start cluttering up the bus, you change the traditional yellow. You can see that (yellow) a mile away and see that it’s a school bus. If you change that at all, we just think you have a possible impact on safety.”

Milton said the CHP also fears that other motorists distracted by the advertising might crash into a bus, injuring children. He said he didn’t know whether transit districts had reported any similar problem with their buses.

Preston said he will suggest that school buses refrain from selling ads on the back of their buses, where flashing lights indicate that children are about to cross the street. But he discounted any threat to safety from ads on the sides of buses.

Frazee said the CHP’s opposition will make it difficult to win passage of the bill in the Legislature. As a result, he said, he envisions accepting restrictions to limit the ads to “institutional advertising” that would not be flashy but would indicate a sponsorship along the lines of messages on public television.

Frazee also noted that his bill would not require but merely allow districts to sell the advertising. Schools, in fact, are not even required to provide buses for their students.

“In my hometown of Carlsbad, the district has decided not to provide transportation,” Frazee said. “So the kids ride to school on transit buses--with advertising on the sides of them.”