Contextual advertising comes to… school test papers?

We may not be queuing up for bread handouts yet, but times are obviously getting pretty tough in the US education system. When high school calculus teacher Tom Farber was told that his photocopying budget was being cut to a point where he wouldn’t be able to repro a year’s worth of tests, he decided to start selling advertising space on the test sheets.

In the face of shrinking budgets all over, how likely is this to become commonplace? And how much of an impetus will it be toward home schooling untainted by commerce (if such a thing is even possible)? [via SlashDot]

3 thoughts on “Contextual advertising comes to… school test papers?”

  1. Wow. This is not the first (nor, I suspect, the last) time I’ve been ashamed of my profession, but this is way up there.

    Now, if the test actually quizzed the kids on the content of the ads to ensure engagement, then, well . . . wow.

  2. Great idea! It does two things:
    1) It’s a resourceful way of getting things done
    2) Brings attention to the needs of the educational system

    Do it again!

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