REGIONAL REPORT : Who Controls the TV? : Some School Districts Defy Honig by Showing Channel One, Ads and All

For Bennito Esparza, first period English kicks off with 12 minutes of television. On a recent morning, the Cerritos high school senior and his classmates were engrossed in a Channel One program about a teen-age art show in Chicago that raised $18,000.

“Cool hair,” remarked one student as she watched a teen-ager with a Liberace-style hairdo painting a mask. Meanwhile, her fellow students bopped to the background music blaring from the television set--an infectious tune by the dance group C&C; Music Factory.

After 10 minutes of news, the segment gave way to a flurry of commercials: a candy ad featuring young people performing stunts on roller skates; pitches for sodas and sneakers. Slowly, the students began chatting with their friends.

“Nobody really pays attention to the commercials because we’ve all seen them millions of times at home on TV,” said Esparza, a senior at Gahr High School in Cerritos, one of the first schools in the nation to try Channel One. “I don’t think anyone’s going to watch an ad on Channel One and run out and buy some Nikes.”

But the two minutes of ads sit at the core of a growing debate in California over where to draw the line between commercialism and public education.

The furor has also touched off a power struggle between local school districts and the state’s top education official over who gets the final say on whether the segments should be aired in public schools.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig has told public schools not to subscribe to the program being offered by Whittle Communications of Knoxville, Tenn., and has vowed to withhold state funding from those who do. He has repeatedly threatened to sue one high school in San Jose that continues to broadcast the program.

Even so, a number of Southern California public schools have signed up. Eight public schools in Los Angeles County are showing Channel One, and a number are exploring the possibility. Later this month, San Diego Unified School District officials will consider two schools’ requests for permission to air the program.

“I feel that, once again, someone in Sacramento is coming down and trying to take our rights away from us,” said Dixie Primosch, a board member for the ABC Unified School District, headquartered in Cerritos. “We don’t want to engage in a legal battle, but we feel we have a right to speak up and say, ‘This district does not agree with you,’ ” said Primosch, who testified in favor of Channel One before a state legislative committee.

Channel One has run into stiff opposition in Ventura County, however. Two months ago, the Ventura school board voted 3 to 2 against allowing Channel One in the classroom after heated testimony from both sides. The Simi Valley Unified School District has approved a policy prohibiting commercials in classrooms.

The controversial program has won a large following in Catholic schools, which make up nearly half of the 150 Channel One subscribers in California. More than 50 schools in the Los Angeles Archdiocese are airing the program.

“I find the news parts very, very good,” said Brother William Carriere, superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Orange. “I was interested in how they told the news stories in language that was understandable to students on that level.”

Sister Barbara Neist, associate superintendent for secondary schools in the Los Angeles Archdiocese, said parents and faculty at Catholic schools have been supportive of the program.

Honig is leading the fight to keep Channel One out of California public schools. He calls the program an unethical advertising gimmick to sell access to a captive, teen-age audience for $150,000 per 30-second spot. Many statewide education groups, including the California PTA, agree.

“If a school sells off portions of its day to Nike, Mars candy or Burger King . . . what is to prevent schools from interrupting classes for other commercials in different formats?” Honig asked. “Can you imagine the physics teacher being paid to wear a Firestone jacket and being required, by contract, to read a list of tires on sale halfway through the class?”

The Channel One format is a mixture of CNN, National Public Radio and MTV.

On a recent day, two youthful anchors presented brief news and feature stories about a range of domestic and international topics pegged to a teen-age audience: the breakup of the Soviet Union, confirmation hearings on Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, and the problems of the American farmer. During the commercial breaks, advertisers hawked sneakers, candy, sodas, acne cream and upcoming television shows.

Channel One supporters maintain that two minutes of commercials is a small price to pay for exposing students to world events. But a prime selling point is the $50,000 worth of high-tech video equipment that comes with the package--a sophisticated electronics network that can be put to a variety of educational uses, and one that most schools could never afford.

“The equipment is the frosting on the cake,” said Jeniece Buckley, principal at Isbell Middle School in Ventura County. “We’ve been using their equipment to do our own school news,” she said.

Other networks, such as CNN, offer commercial-free news programs. But many schools are not wired for cable or do not have enough television sets to go around. Whittle performs all the necessary installation at participating schools and provides all the equipment.

“They’re (advertisers) paying big bucks for this? Fine. All I care about is what’s best for our school,” said Tony Alfaro, principal at Memorial Junior High School--one of two San Diego public schools that recently asked for permission to show Channel One on a trial basis.

The debate over Channel One has found its way to the state Legislature. Two bills that would have banned the program were gutted earlier this year. Another proposal, which would have given local school districts the discretion to show Channel One, also failed.

Whittle Communications has paid more than $600,000 to lobbyists and high-profile public relations firms to help ease the way for Channel One in California, according to reports filed with the secretary of state. Whittle officials blame Honig for their failure to make inroads in California public schools.

“Where we differ philosophically is that we see advertising as the solution, not the problem,” said Ed Winter, chairman of Whittle Educational Network.

Whittle launched Channel One with a five-week pilot program in 1989. Since then, more than 9,700 schools in 47 states have subscribed to the network. But in California, the nation’s largest public education market, there are just 150 Channel One subscribers, mostly private schools.

“Certainly public schools are going to be concerned if the superintendent has a problem with it, but the grass-roots support for the program has generated a lot of interest,” Winter said.

Others are worried about where Channel One will ultimately lead.

“When a vendor is trying to sell you something, they’ll promise you anything,” said Verna Stroud, middle school coordinator at South Gate Elementary School in South Gate, where officials are considering subscribing to Channel One. “But you have no way of knowing what will happen down the road.”