North County : Assembly Clears Ads on Buses in San Marcos, Vista

School districts in San Marcos and Vista could sell commercial advertising for the sides of school buses under legislation the state Assembly approved Tuesday and sent to the Senate.

The bill, by Assemblyman Robert Frazee (R-Carlsbad), sets up a pilot program in the North County districts, allowing only those two districts to sell the ads to raise additional funds for their transportation programs.

The schools would not be permitted to sell advertisements for tobacco, alcohol or political or religious causes. The bill also prohibits placing advertisements on the front or rear of the buses.

The California Highway Patrol would monitor the program for two years and then report its findings to the Legislature.

Frazee’s bill was approved 57-13 in the Assembly without debate.

In a brief statement to his Assembly colleagues, Frazee said the bill would allow the two districts to test a concept that makes many people squeamish because of longstanding sensitivity surrounding school buses.

“This is very much controlled and limited and something akin to the adopt-a-school program, where businesses would have the opportunity to ‘adopt’ a school bus to provide some revenue for operation of that bus and receive a little credit for it with a notation on the side of the bus,” Frazee said.

The bill, however, sets no guidelines on the size or style of the signs, other than to say that the advertisements could not affect “the overall coloration of any school bus.”

San Marcos Unified School District officials have said the program could raise as much as $100,000 for that district, while Vista Unified officials estimate that they might generate as much as $250,000 a year through the advertising.

Frazee’s bill originally would have legalized school bus advertising statewide but the lawmaker scaled back his measure to a pilot program in North County when he ran into opposition from the CHP.