On December 9, 1998, ASCD sponsored a forum titled Commercialism in Schools: Supporting Students or Selling Access? At the forum, a diverse panel of experts debated whether commercial arrangements between schools and businesses help or harm students. The event, which was held in a U.S. Senate committee room, was attended by staff members from more than 20 congressional offices as well as members of the national media, education organizations, and a variety of public interest groups.
The panelists were Brita Butler-Wall, a board member of the Center for Commercial-Free Public Education; Paul Folkemer, vice president for education at the Channel One Network; Dan DeRose, president of DD Marketing, a firm that negotiates commercial deals for schools; Alex Molnar, director of the Center for the Analysis of Commercialism in Education at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee; Dan Fuller, federal networks advocate for the National School Boards Association; and Vera Blake, principal of Holmes Middle School in Fairfax County, Va. The forum was moderated by Diane Berreth, ASCD's deputy executive director. A complete transcript of this event is available on ASCD's Web site at http://www.ascd.org.