Faced with stinging budget cuts, a county school board in the Rocky
Mountain state of Colorado is selling advertising space on report cards
to help make ends meet.
Jefferson County Public Schools expects to make $90,000 over three
years from Collegeinvest, a college savings plan, for the two-inch
(five-centimeter) ads on report cards issued by its 91 elementary
schools.
That seems like a drop in the bucket for the school board, which last
year slashed its spending by $40 million in the face of reduced state
and federal government support and a slump in revenue from school
property taxes.
But
school board spokeswoman Melissa Reeves told AFP by telephone on
Monday: “We’re obviously looking for revenue generators and taking them
where we can find them.”