Last Wednesday, Seattle School Supt. John Stanford unexpectedly announced the district was dropping its controversial plan to put corporate ads in public schools. According to Stanford, advertising is "...dead in Seattle schools. The board has listened to the people."

Indeed, people spoke: from an ETS!-inspired late night raid in which Stanford and the five supporting School Board members had their homes decorated with corporate logos, through public forums, phone calls, faxes, and a recently formed group intent on getting all visible corporate presence out of Seattle schools.

While Stanford's reversal is a tremendous grass roots victory, it's not the end of the issue. For one thing, chief ad advocate Don Nielson (elected in 1993 with a large corporate war chest and extensive stock holdings in tobacco and alcohol companies) is up for re-election this year. If he is re-elected, Nielson and board chair Linda Harris can be expected to use the district's ongoing financial crunch to push again for corporate revenue--except not quite so visibly next time. The intent of this year's plan was not so much to raise funds (the actual revenue anticipated was laughably small, intended only to fund some middle school intramural sports programs) as to get a foot in the door; other efforts to set that precedent are probably now underway. Indeed , Stanford suggested as much: "This is a Freddy Krueger city. Everything rises again."

Moreover, corporations are already in Seattle's schools. Channel One, a national TV network of "educational" programming and commercials, broadcasts in Seattle classrooms. Corporations provide lesson plans (often with heavy promotional or ideological biases) and countless souvenirs and sponsorships. The use of a young, captive audience in a public institution as an advertising target should be eliminated--period.

The danger of the victory over the School Board's ad plan is that the larger drive to get corporations out may lose visibility and steam. Stay involved, or get involved. For more info, contact Brita Butler-Wall of Citizen's Campaign for Commercial-Free Schools: 4756 Univ. Village Pl. NE #202, Seattle WA 98105; 523-4922; or email bbwall@seattleu.edu.