For every long-distance call you make, your telephone company donates money to the school of your choice; the more you spend on groceries, the more computer equipment your school gets; bright yellow school buses are suddenly sporting billboards; and your child's soccer uniform has a corporate logo. If you're starting to feel that public schools are getting more and more commercial, you might be right.

A September 2000 report from the General Accounting Office to Congress finds that, although national data is scarce, commercial activities in schools have increased over the past decade. A quarter of the nation's middle and high schools now show Channel One—which broadcasts 10 minutes of news and 2 minutes of commercials—in classrooms. Roughly 200 school districts have signed exclusive contracts with soft-drink companies to sell their beverages in schools.

Schools rely on businesses to supplement tight budgets through donations of money, goods or services, and the Department of Education supports this practice as largely unobtrusive. But more visible commercial support and advertising raise concerns about the potential for biased materials, lost instructional time, promotion of bad eating habits, and violations of students' privacy, especially in cases where new technology and the Internet are involved. Researchers note that it's difficult—if not impossible—to determine the effect in-school advertising has on students' learning or consumer behavior.

For this study, researchers reviewed national data and legal codes and visited 19 elementary and secondary schools in California, Michigan and New Mexico. They identified a wide-range of commercial activities in schools, from non-controversial corporate grants and financial donations to more controversial tactics, which they categorized as:

• Product sales: exclusive contracts between schools and soda or fast food companies, short-term sales of candy or gift wrap, for example, for fundraisers

• Direct advertising: ads on buses, athletic scoreboards, book covers, soda machines

• Indirect advertising: corporate-sponsored education materials or teacher training

• Market research: focus groups, surveys, and online activity tracking to capture students' consumer habits and preferences.

Product sales—primarily soft drink sales and short-term fundraisers—were the most common form of commercial activity in the schools visited in this study, and the ones offering the biggest financial benefit to schools. Indirect advertising, often subtle, was evident in all the schools they surveyed. In general, high schools have more commercial activity than middle or elementary schools.

Only 19 states have specific laws or regulations governing commercial activity in public schools. Of those, only 5 were judged comprehensive. In most states, school board members, district officials and parents determine whether to permit certain advertising and promotional displays. In at least one school district, the school decided it would be inappropriate to distribute book covers sponsored by a tobacco company.

The new economy—and its high-tech tools and toys— bring more challenges for those concerned about the commercialization of schools. Companies like ZapMe!, which provides free computers and equipment to those schools that agree to meet the usage requirements, give advertisers more access to schools and students. The report also finds that a small but growing number (8 percent) of elementary schools receive rebate funds from Internet shopping programs.

For more information, read the full GAO report, "Public Education: Commercial Activity in the Schools" online.