The endless struggle for more funding is seeing advertising creep into school newsletters and back-to-school packs as retailers use kickbacks to schools to win favour and “priceless” endorsements from school principals.
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Stationery retailers have long partnered with schools at this time of year, but increasingly other retailers have been getting in on the action.
Woolworths' Earn & Learn campaign saw more than 13,000 schools sign up nationally in 2013, and in the Canberra region The Athlete's Foot has 70 schools registered for their School Rewards Program.
With the promise of cash or school equipment donations in return for business, schools are readily endorsing retailers.
“It is a delicate matter,” Norm Hart, the Queensland-based president of the Australian Primary Principals Association said, “but there's nothing to stop a principal saying well this company's been a supporter of the school, we'd encourage you to buy from them.
“It's very hard to say no to kickbacks for the school … any extra funding you get is very helpful.”
The value of a school endorsement to a business can't be underestimated either.
"Most organisations when they're targeting parents or households in general would put in their marketing plan that it would be great to get into a school newsletter in some way and this is the next step, really being that endorsed brand by the school," Dr Raechel Johns, Assistant Professor in Marketing at the University of Canberra said.
“People have to buy shoes, they have to buy groceries, they have to buy stationery, so if you can be the one company that's endorsed by the school, then you're going to do quite well from that.
"I wouldn't put a dollar value on it, but it would be phenomenal... if you can get the school principal, as an opinion leader, to encourage parents to buy that particular brand, that's priceless.”
So while parents might be able to find better deals on stationery or shoes at back-to-school time if they shop around; convenience, goodwill or peer pressure can lead parents to pay more.
“You don't want to be the one parent who sends their kid along with something that's completely different,” Dr Johns said.
Around 70 schools in the ACT region have signed up for The Athlete's Foot program which donates $5 per pair of shoes sold to families of those school communities who register.
Many of those schools choose to send home “approved footwear” pamphlets advertising select shoes available from TAF which the school recommends.
While branded booklists from stationery retailers have an implied school endorsement, some of TAF pamphlets go as far as including a principal's message of endorsement.
But Mr Hart said the commercial arrangements are often negotiated or at least approved by school's parents and friends associations as part of their fundraising.
Vivienne Pearce, president of the ACT Council of Parents and Citizens Associations said community engagement with local businesses is a positive thing but needs to be carefully considered.
“It comes back to the issues raised by Gonski, there is a deficit [of funds] within the public school system, particularly if you've got parents in that school system who are less able to contribute extra money for the add-ons,” she said.
The four Canberra franchises of The Athlete's Foot have donated over $100,000 to local schools in the four years of the school rewards program, including $40,000 last year alone.
Paul Bennett, owner of the Civic and Tuggeranong franchises, also sends stock and sales staff to a number of school's uniform shops, providing one-stop convenience for parents.
Dr Johns describes the marketing tactic as "very clever" but with benefits for everyone.
“It's very difficult to get families to donate all the time, whereas this way, the families are buying the shoes that they need anyway, then the schools are getting the $5 donation from the company.”
“You've got to do a lot of shopping around in January for all the school things, so if you're told you can go into one store and get it all, it makes life easier for a parent.”