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Ads Could be Coming to School Buses

School bus closeup
School bus closeup

Florida's public schools are looking for new ways to get money to meet funding shortfalls. One suggestion is renting out the sides of school buses to advertisers. Lawmakers in the Florida House of Representatives last week passed a bill that would allow advertising on the iconic yellow buses.

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The sunshine state isn’t the first to consider ads on school buses.

According to the Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood, nine other states already allow advertising on the buses, while Florida is one of six considering it.

Democratic State Representative Irv Slosburg, from Boca Raton, sponsored a bus ad bill which the Florida House passed last week.

“You know, I’m not saying this is optimal. Optimally we should be getting budgets for our transportation for school buses, but we’re not," he said.

One district waiting on the legislation is Orange County, which has some 900 buses on the road on any school day.

The district has not rolled out any firm numbers, but if it were to charge 200 dollars a month for each bus, those ads could raise more than 2 million dollars a year. 

But critics say the money isn't worth the risk of added driver distraction.

In 30 years as a Florida Highway patrolman, Edward R Hagler saw plenty of drivers speeding past stationary school buses.

Hagler, who is now retired, said some drivers already have enough trouble recognizing a yellow bus with flashing lights and bright red stop signs.

“When you put signs on the side of a school bus, it diminishes the recognition factor of the school bus," he said.

"Why would you do that and put children in unnecessary danger by doing that? It just doesn’t make sense.”

Orange County Schools spokesman Dylan Thomas said the board would have to approve the ads first, and they might not be placed on every bus.

He said the school board would also take safety into consideration.

“Certainly if you do add something else to the side of a bus, that does add an element of distraction. It's a question of how great a risk is that, how great a distraction is that," he said.

Representative Irv Slosberg is convinced the ads won’t make the roads any more dangerous. His daughter died in a car crash in 1996.

“I’d be the last guy to think about putting ads on school buses if I didn’t check it out thoroughly," said Slosberg. 

"I’ve researched it and I haven’t had any problem. You know some people are trying to sensationalize it by saying these school buses are going to be wrapped in Captain Crunch ads. Well, that’s not the way it is.” 

Slosberg said the ads would only measure two by six feet, they wouldn’t obscure safety features, and some of the ad revenue would go into driver education.

Florida’s legislative session wraps up at the end of the week, and it should be clear by then whether or not school buses will stay ad free.

 

 

 

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