Corporations and schools? Now there's an idea

Ben the technician was just at my house, and we were talking about how little high school coaches get paid. He said he's always thought schools should get corporate sponsorship for athletics. That corporations would get their money's worth in having their name put in a kid's ear when they're young and still listen to commercials and ads. That the company would have customers for life because of such a sponsorship, and school athletic programs wouldn't have to suffer and fund raise.

This sounds great, but you know some companies wouldn't let it be that simple. Darn few have the common sense of Bill and Melinda Gates of the Gates Foundation. Some corporations would put stipulations on how their money is spent, insisting it only be for this and only be for that. Just look at the way some club teams sponsored by shoe companies have to play in the tournaments of those shoe companies.

Laws would have to be passed which dictate that sponsoring companies wouldn't have a say in how money is spent at the donor school of their choice; that those decisions would be left up to the school district or school site. Not only would that create a new government regulatory agency that costs us all money, there would be the question as to whether or not corporations would still want to sponsor schools under those stipulations. I'm not business-savy enough to know, but I would guess not.

Another option would be for the US government to require corporations in certain tax brackets to donate a percentage of their profits to schools. But then there would be a contingent that would say that this is a dictatorship; that the government shouldn't be able to tell companies how to spend their money in a capitalistic society.

I'd agree with them if a portion of our taxes didn't already go to schools. Everyone pays for schools, whether they have kids or not. So why not require that of large corporations, too? Even a small amount would help cash-starved schools and athletic departments right now. If a company gave each school in my school district $1000, it would help fund buses and uniforms, and the company would be out less than $25,000.

I wish there was a way.