Much Ado About Very Little: The Benefits and Costs of School-Based Commercial Activities

Policy advocacy, inequity, and school fees and fundraising in Ontario, Canada

“…Academic research on school fundraising has identified a wide variety of strategies used by schools and districts to raise funds, from selling goods to soliciting donations to opening up schools to tuition-paying international students (Brent & Lunden, 2009;Poole & Fallon, 2015). It finds that often schools and school boards turn to fundraising to supplement perceived funding shortfalls.…”

“…It finds that often schools and school boards turn to fundraising to supplement perceived funding shortfalls. The shortfalls arise not only as a consequence of less money flowing to schools, but also because the expectations of what schools will offer have increased as have the costs of providing education and constraints on how public funds can be spent (Brent & Lunden, 2009;Carpenter et al, 2012;Sattem, 2007). Fundraising has also been used to create schools that can attract more students (and the public funds they bring) under school choice policies (Howe & Ashcraft, 2005).…”

“…Scholars of school fundraising policy tend to be critical of the practice and adopt critical perspectives in their work (e.g., Pistiolis, 2012;Posey-Maddox, 2016), although some researchers have highlighted benefits of fundraising (e.g., Brent & Lunden, 2009). Many critics argue fundraising reproduces class inequalities.…”

Social Enterprise and Christian School Finance: Receptivity of ACSI Christian School Leaders in Mid-America

“…Some activities have been determined to be acceptable, primarily those not directly impacting the classroom, with others being seen as inappropriate ways to generate extra funding (Browder, 2007). Some naysayers suggest that the percentage of the budget brought in through commercial activity in schools does not justify the attention that has been given to it (Brent & Lunden, 2009). Others are concerned about specific issues within commercial activities in schools such as the health impact of food sold as a part of fundraisers (Kubik, Lytle, Farbakhsh, Moe, & Samuelson, 2009).…”

Developing the Moral Integrity of College Sport through Commercialism

“…Money generated through commercialism would allow for additional resources and subsequent increases in teams and participants, who would experience the same good. Increasing commercialism to merely remain financially solvent is not uncommon (Brent & Lunden 2009, Malec 2007, Shaw 2000 but is not moral in and of itself; however, if a byproduct is happiness for more members of the sporting community, continued commercialization of college sport can be considered morally good.…”