School Risks Commercial Taint in Medium for Meat in Message : Education: Students at San Diego University High School don’t seem to mind TV ads in class.

For students at University of San Diego High School, a Dentyne or Gatorade commercial has been a small price to pay to learn such things as the difference between Margaret Thatcher and Dianne Feinstein, or that Guam is an American possession in the Pacific, not the name of a chip dip.

For teachers and administrators, two minutes of commercials in the 12-minute Channel 1 newscast beamed into 51 classrooms every morning this school year have been a small price to pay for receiving not only the news program but $50,000 worth of video and television equipment provided by Whittle Communications of Knoxville, Tenn., the program’s producer.

But, until last week, the high school, part of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego, was the only California school receiving Channel 1, which has generated strong controversy because its programming contains commercials.

As a private school, it is not subject to warnings from state Schools Supt. Bill Honig, who says that showing commercials as part of a news program fails to qualify as an educational activity and is unethical because it treats students as a commodity to be sold.

Honig has vowed to withhold state education money, based on attendance, from any California public school for the portion of time each day students spend watching Channel One.

University of San Diego High has received Channel 1 since September. Last week, a high school in San Jose, Overfelt High, became the first public school to try Channel 1--which ends today for the 1989-90 school year--as well as a likely test case for Honig when the school asks for about $30,000 worth of attendance reimbursement later this year.

At Whittle’s suggestion, the Catholic school showed off its use of Channel 1 Thursday, as part of the corporation’s lobbying effort in the state Legislature for a bill to allow individual public school districts to decide whether they want to subscribe to the Whittle package.

The measure was withdrawn from consideration Wednesday by its author, Assemblyman Stan Statham (R-Redding), after he concluded it could not pass in face of fierce opposition from Honig, the state PTA, the state School Boards Assn. and the two major teacher employee groups. Statham said he may ask the legislature to finance a study of the Channel 1 concept.

Honig and other state educators have promoted a competing news program for teen-agers, CNN Newsroom, a 15-minute weekday newscast from the Atlanta-based Cable News Network and free to any school equipped for cable transmission. About 40 schools in San Diego County alone are using the CNN broadcast.

Neither Honig nor the Whittle Corp. disagrees about the overall abysmal level of knowledge among American secondary school students regarding current events, geography and foreign nations, as measured by numerous tests and surveys during the past several years. Rather, they part company over the issue of how to improve the sorry state of affairs.

Both CNN Newsroom and Channel 1 offer a fast-paced summary of major news stories, followed by features ranging from business to science to education, all presented by young, peppy anchors.

But Whittle, by including commercial advertising, can generate enough revenue to turn a profit and to give schools, without cost, the equipment needed to deliver the program to all classrooms. In return, the school agrees to show the program to all students every day.

CNN offers only the ability to tape its program free every day if a school has the necessary facilities.

For University of San Diego High, Whittle’s offer of equipment was the major selling point.

“We could not have afforded the equipment otherwise” to show the program in all our classes, Estelle L. Kassebaum, the school’s executive director of development, said Thursday. And, although the school did have some initial qualms about Channel 1 because of the commercials, Kassebaum said, “We’ve had nothing but positive responses. . . . From what we’ve seen of the commercials, they are brief and well-done.” All 1,250 students are able to watch the news daily now that each class has a ceiling-mounted television monitor.

On Thursday, the 11th-grade history students in Ron Arrington’s American history class discounted the argument that the commercials are a drawback.

“Some of us just doze off during them, or we talk during the commercials unless they’re really well-made, like the one with Michael Jordan,” Alison Gingeras said. Although most of the students could remember the four commercials shown Thursday--for Dentyne, Certs, Gatorade and a Columbia Pictures trailer for “Milo and Otis”--the ads are the same ones they see at home all the time, the students said.

“They could have sort of a brainwashing effect,” volunteered Judy Petix, saying that a friend of hers sings along to certain ads. “But I would take (Channel 1) with the ads” if it were a choice of not having the news at all, she said.

Instructor Arrington said he believes “the state of California is really missing out on a very real educational opportunity, since there definitely are students who can retain much information visually.

“The commercials are not offensive in this case,” said Arrington, reflecting a widespread view that two minutes of commercials are minor for teen-agers already sated with advertising directed at them.

But Honig aide Bill Rukeyser says the state Department of Education’s opposition is unalterable because Whittle is asking schools for exclusive access to students in exchange for equipment.

“Honig believes that, even if we were to violate our sense of ethics--which says we should not sell students for access--the proper way to do this would be for us to line our kids up in front of television advertisers ourselves and sell directly.