Buying Schools

Excuse my sarcasm, but what is the big deal about having Halliburton pay for a new high school auditorium to be built?  This is not a new thing at all.  Universities do it all the time.  Rich donors give and buildings get named after them... Just go to any campus (public or private)  and take a look at the names of the buildings.


There is a big challenge associated with this, especially for public colleges who have less and less coming from state legislatures.


At our university, we have a building glut so to speak, new buildings are going up constantly, while people are getting laid off.  I have to say its not the fault of the administration.  Its the set up regarding funding... there always seems to be money available for buildings (through the sale of public bonds). Unfortunately there are no public bonds for faculty & staff salaries and student scholarships.


So then, should we ask Halliburton to pay for a few things on campus (college or high school?).  What are the strings attached to this arrangement?

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Steve Lopez: Chevron Auditorium? Halliburton High? Corporate sponsors for L.A. schools is bad idea

December 17, 2010 |  8:20 am

I walked my daughter onto her L.A. Unified campus the other day and saw a fresh face being escorted around by a teacher.


"Who's that?" I asked my girl.


"The new janitor," she said.


Part-time janitor, actually, and so it goes in the LAUSD, which is in the midst of yet another juggling act after dumping 1,000 office aides, library assistants and groundskeepers.


And if you heard about the comments made this week by incoming Gov. Jerry Brown, public education is going to keep getting whacked because of gigantic budget deficits.


Which is why the LAUSD board is considering corporate sponsors to help fill the hole. The sponsors would pay up to $500,000, or more in some cases, to have their names branded on auditoriums, scoreboards and athletic fields.
They couldn't sell specific products, but we could end up with the Bank of America Auditorium at my daughter's elementary school, and the money would be shared by all schools.


Good idea?...more

On the side of decency and humanity part I

Yesterday my husband and I were having a conversation about what people are thinking when they say nasty things about the immigration movement. I was remembering a hearing I attended in Austin and the Texas Legislature where one politician from Humble Texas asked why didn't DREAMERS go back to Mexico and have their country pay their tuition. I have to admit this is laughable, if anyone knows anything about Mexico as a nation-state, they are very aware that MOST young people in the country don't get past "secundaria" -- 8th grade...

Our current problem (the 50% drop out rate in the U.S.) -- is caused by lots of subterranean reasons: among them, inequity in funding of inner city schools, a not so subtle push by the U.S. government (and powerful citizens) to keep a majority of the population uneducated (we don't want to give the upper middle class kids more competition).

In Mexico its actually very black and white - there just isn't a way for most kids to go past 8th grade. Tuition is charged for the higher grades and most people barely have enough money to eat. Many many kids are desperate to go to school. That is why-when they immigrate and have their own children, the next generation generally knocks itself out (like the DREAMERS) so they can carry on their parent's dreams of going to school.