Pizitz Middle School removed Channel One News in 2011. This math exercise helped show citizens how much Channel One cost. Vestavia Hills is a suburb of Birmingham, AL.
$ .0945 * Cost To Taxpayers For One Minute Of Pizitz Middle School Time Per Student X 12 Channel One Is At Least 12 Minutes Long
$ 1.13 Cost For One Pizitz Student To Watch A Channel One TV Show
177 Required School Days
X .90 School System Agrees To Show The TV Show 90% Of School Year
159 Minimum # Of Days Channel One Should Be Shown
1,000 Students At Pizitz Middle School
X 1.13 Cost To Taxpayers For One Student To Watch The 12-Minute TV Show
$1,130 Cost To Taxpayers For Pizitz To Watch One Day Of Channel One
$1,130 Daily Cost Of Channel One
X 159 Contracted Minimum # Of Days Of Viewing
$179,670 The Cost Of Requiring Students To Watch Channel One At Pizitz Middle
School for One Year
Using 100 Days Of Viewing, The Cost Is $113,000.
The Actual Number Of Viewing Days Is Most Likely Between The Contractually Required 159 And 100 Which Is Similar To Obligation’s Observation Of Usage.
What is the offsetting benefit?
Questions To Ask To Determine The Amount Of Benefit:
- What’s The Annual Rental Value Of Seven-Year Old 19-Inch Color TVs ?
- What’s The Value Of A Fixed Satellite Dish That Can Only Pick Up Channel One Network?
- What’s The Usage Of The “Classroom Channel”?
- What’s The Value Of A VCR That’s In A Box No One Can Open?
- What’s The Value Of A TV Show That Experts Say Is Ineffective Or Non-Educational? (Vassar College Study In January ’97 Is The Latest: “Channel One Is Not Educational Television. It Is A Slick Twelve Minute Commercial, ” Says Dr. William Hoynes)
- How Often Do We Test Students On Information Channel One Presented?
- How Else Do We Measure Channel One Effectiveness?
- Why Are We An “Island” When It Comes To Channel One Usage?
- Does Our Board Of Education Have Liability For This Waste Of Money And Student Time?
* From April 10, 1997 Letter From Dr. Joe Morton, Deputy State Superintendent Of Education
[Call your state education department. Find out what a minute of school is worth to taxpayers. Do the math. Your state is probably losing more money than Alabama. If your school board doubts your cost figures, simply ask them to tell you what they think the Channel One cost is. You are going to have some speechless people on your hands. I doubt if any school system has calculated the financial cost of Channel One and then agreed to their contract. Some will say that since it is shown in homeroom (non-instructional time) that the above calculations are wrong. “We would have a thirty-minute homeroom no matter if we had or didn’t have Channel One.”
Common sense should tell anyone that every minute of school is paid for by taxpayers – instructional and non-instructional. Homeroom is obviously made twelve minutes longer than necessary to accommodate this advertising company. That time has to be taken from somewhere. It is being taken from additional instruction, additional math, additional English. The trend across our state is to get rid of homeroom altogether.
Defenders of Channel One jump all over the place in order to justify Channel One.
One time they will say, “This is the only news children get to see. They love it and learn so much from it. It is an important part of our children’s education.”
Then when the taxpayer cost issue comes up: “Kids are doing all sorts of things during this time. Some are taking make-up tests. Roll is being taken. Teachers are making announcements. We would not decrease homeroom time at all if Channel One is removed because homeroom is jammed packed with housekeeping duties.”
Defenders of Channel One can’t have it both ways.
Taxpayers are going to have a fit when they truly
understand this institutionalized waste of student time.] <End>
