School buses become billboards to save budget. Brilliant or bad idea?

Piper Weiss
Marc Horner, fleet manager for Jeffco Public Schools, stands next to a school bus last year with a bank advertisement on its side at the school's bus maintenance facility in Lakewood, Colo. About half a dozen states already allow bus advertising _ including Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)
Marc Horner, fleet manager for Jeffco Public Schools, stands next to a school bus last year with a bank advertisement on its side at the school's bus maintenance facility in Lakewood, Colo. About half a dozen states already allow bus advertising _ including Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski)

Are you prepared to send your kid to school in a bus advertising Little Ceasars pizza? You may not have a choice.

Read more about how advertisers target kids

As school districts face budget cuts, cash-strapped boards are finding opportunities in unlikely places.

In several Texas school districts, buses, scoreboards and even school board websites are being considered billboard potential.

This week, the Clear Creek Independent School District, in Galveston, announced it would offer ad space on buses, at its district football stadium and on its own website. The hope is that the move will earn up to $400,000, and reduce administration restructuring. Last week, the New Braunfels school board voted in favor of turning their student transportation into moving ad campaigns to fill the budget gap. And earlier this month, buses were given safety upgrades and a new set of pre-installed seat belts, paid for, in part, by money earned from ads on the face of those buses.

In Arizona, New Jersey, Tennessee and Utah, the sales method is also being road-tested as a way to avoid job loss and cuts in extracurricular student activities. Colorado's Jefferson County has a four year deal with First Bank of Colorado to run their ads on local buses. Maine may be next, as Portland's school district weighs advertising opportunities to keep their school sports teams in check.

Resourceful as it is, selling adds on school property is an ethical minefield. Parameters are being set within states and districts, but there's room for flexibility. In New Jersey, ads for bars, drug companies and religious organizations are banned. Texas' transportation board vetoes political or 'questionable' ads on buses. But what's questionable to some parents, isn't always in line with broke school boards.

The goal is to keep student activities running, kids safe and teachers employed. But does it send the wrong message to kids that their education is for sale? It's a difficult question to answer, particularly when your sending your kid off in a big moving billboard for greasy pizza, knowing it's paying for updates to their athletic facilities. It also begs the question: what isn't for sale? Will classes soon be sponsored by the latest Pixar film? Will curriculum be influenced by businesses looking to make it into your kid's history books? A bank ad on a bus may be a small price to pay for your child's safety and education, but is it worth it in the long-term?

Related on Shine:
Sneaky ways advertisers target kids
Dad's amazing school bus prank on son
Parents track school buses with GPS
Preparing for your child's first bus ride