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October 2002 | Volume 60 | Number 2 The World in the Classroom Pages 74-79
Alex Molnar
Media reports of commercial activities in U.S. schools appear to have leveled off in some categories, but more schools are raising money by granting naming rights to corporations, finds Arizona State University's Commercialism in Education Research Unit in its fifth annual study.
When a school in Brooklawn, New Jersey, needed funds last year to help defray the cost of its new gymnasium, the superintendent borrowed an idea from big-time sports. Just as Milwaukee's new baseball stadium carries the name of Miller beer and the Chicago Bulls' basketball arena is named for United Airlines, so the Brooklawn School District agreed to name the new gym for the only supermarket in town, ShopRite, for $100,000 (Graham, 2001).
The district didn't stop there. It assigned school board vice president Bruce Darrow to the new post of “Director of Corporate Development.” Armed with glossy sales brochures showing the school building emblazoned with the words “YOUR NAME HERE,” Darrow was given the job of selling naming rights for everything from baseball field foul lines to the school's proposed new library.
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