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Education Policies on School-Business Relationships
Milwaukee Principles for Corporate Involvement in Schools
To help schools, administrators, and teachers meet their ethical obligations to students when partnering with companies that provide educational resources, the following principles have been adopted by the National Association of State Boards of Education, National Parent-Teachers Association (PTA), American Association of School Administrators, National Council of Social Studies, and the National Education Association:
School-business relationships based on sound principles can contribute to high quality education. However, compulsory attendance confers on educators an obligation to protect the welfare of their students and the integrity of the learning environment. Therefore, when working together schools and businesses must ensure that educational values are not distorted in the process. Positive school-business relationships should be ethical and structured in accordance with all eight of the following principles:
- Corporate involvement shall not require students to observe, listen to, or read commercial advertising.
- Selling or providing access to a captive audience in the classroom for commercial purposes is exploitation and a violation of the public trust.
- Since school property and time are publicly funded, selling or providing free access to advertising on school property outside the classroom involves ethical and legal issues that must be addressed.
- Corporate involvement must support the goals and objectives of the schools. Curriculum and instruction are within the purview of educators.
- Programs of corporate involvement must be structured to meet an identified education need, not a commercial motive, and must be evaluated for educational effectiveness by the school/district on an ongoing basis.
- Schools and educators should hold sponsored and donated materials to the same standards used for the selection and purchase of curriculum materials.
- Corporate involvement programs should not limit the discretion of schools and teachers in the use of sponsored materials.
- Sponsor recognition and corporate logos should be for identification rather than commercial purposes. (Center for Analysis of Commercialism in Education 1999)
The Milwaukee Principles for Corporate Involvement in Schools were developed at a meeting proposed by Molnar and hosted by the School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1990. These principles have been adopted by the National Association of State Boards of Education, National Parent-Teachers Association (PTA), American Association of School Administrators, National Council of Social Studies. They also have been endorsed by state superintendents of education in California, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina (CACE 1999).
National PTA Guidelines for Corporate Involvement in Schools. According to the National PTA, these guidelines are intended to assist parents, schools, PTAs, and businesses in using the organization's National Principles for Corporate Involvement in the Schools:
- Parents need to be involved as equal partners when schools engage in decisions regarding business (corporate partnerships).
- Everyone involved in a school-business partnership should be reminded that the adequacy of public school facilities, supplies, and programs is the responsibility of all taxpayers, and the appropriate public officials must remain responsible for providing each and every student with the resources necessary for a quality education. The adequacy of the public school program should not depend on marketing decisions made by private corporations.
- It is important to consider the overall character and effect of a school-business partnership to determine if the corporate involvement is in keeping with a noncommercial environment in the classroom and school building. Public schools must not be used to promote commercial interest.
- School districts could establish a Business Advisory Council that includes PTA parent/student members to help involve businesses in the schools, give directions to businesses on school needs, provide information about the schools to business leaders, and help school leaders understand the concerns of businesses regarding schools. (National PTA)
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