For the last eight years, Computers for Education Inc. of Tennessee has
mailed information packets to all schools in America, looking for students
to peddle magazines in exchange for computer equipment. Last year, the company
bypassed the students, setting up an Internet site with facts on nearly
every school in the country and ways to buy subscriptions. A portion of
subscription money, the site advertises, directly benefits the school of
the viewer's choice.
Not a bad deal, the company says. But there's a catch: Many schools,
including those in Connecticut, had no idea their names were being used
to sell magazines.
"I think it's misleading. I think it's designed to be misleading,"
said Waterford, Conn., Superintendent Randall H. Collins. "I'm upset
by the implication that . . . any of the schools . . . benefit by the fund
raising because we haven't and maybe we never will."
Collins wants the Waterford schools off the site, as do other administrators.
But the company says that while it can disconnect some parts of the site,
it has the right to keep up basic information on the schools.
The dispute has thrust school fund raising into territory as uncharted
as the Internet itself, where the lines between public information and commercial
enterprise are blurred.
Connecticut State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said, after looking
at the site for the first time, that he planned to investigate although
his office had not received any complaints.
"Depending on the circumstances, names of schools should not be
used as implied endorsements without their permission," Blumenthal
said. And it makes no difference that the company is based in another state,
he added.
"We're going to look at it very closely," he said. "We'll
be in touch with the schools and determine whether or not there's a violation
of the law."
The directory does include an extensive disclaimer, stating that the
site is not officially sponsored by the schools it refers to, and that the
company is not affiliated with those schools.
'Very reputable'
Tom Crook, CEO of Computers for Education, said the company, which has
300 employees, is the second largest magazine fund-raising firm for schools
in the country. He said the company checked out the legality of its site
before launching it.
"We are very reputable in this business," he said. "We
were very careful. We did not do a project of this magnitude without having
legal advice."
The company has made some mistakes with the site, and is willing to respond
to concerns, he said.
The for-profit Computers for Education designed the American
School Directory with the intention of creating a web site for all 106,000
schools in the country. Most, but not all, local schools--public and private--are
listed on the site with information such as their size, location, school
colors, and administrators.
Links on each school's site take viewers to pages where they can subscribe
to magazines--earning their schools "technology points." More
than 800 selections, which are categorized as "family magazines,"
are offered, from TV Guide to National Geographic to Auto Racing Digest.
Computers for Education is responsible for magazine billing and distribution.
The company will convert the points, worth $.50 each, into computer equipment
for the schools, or send them a check.
The majority of schools in poor communities did not have web sites two
years ago when the project began, said Elijah Collard, the company's vice
president for marketing. The site also offers schools a safe way to raise
money that doesn't require students to knock on doors, he said.
The project is a good way to bring public and private interests together,
he added.
The company sent three mailings to every school last year, telling them
about ASD and asking them to participate in their web site's creation, he
said. But the packets are often overlooked or thrown away.
Collins said that as far as he and other school administrators knew,
Waterford received no such notice. A school library assistant happened upon
the site.
The schools that did respond to the mailings submitted information and,
for a price, added features like student artwork to their sites. Some participated
in a regular magazine drive to raise funds to improve their sites.
"Overwhelmingly, schools love what we have done," Collard said.
Local Connecticut school officials, however, were surprised when told
about the site. Groton Superintendent George M. Reilly said he would ask
that their site be removed and would warn parents the site isn't school-sponsored.
"This is not something we have agreed to, much less approve of,"
he said.
Michael Frechette, superintendent in Norwich, Conn., was also unaware
of the site.
"Obviously, I'd have the same concerns," he said. "We
need to be aware of whether our schools are being used for a promotional
venture that would benefit people making money in the private sector."
Electronic-mail messages--e-mails--posted by school staff members across
the country also reflect discontent, mainly because their officials' permission
wasn't sought before the site went up.
Carol Simpson, a library technology facilitator in Mesquite, Texas, wrote
in a Sept. 9 e-mail that her district's policy was not to allow other groups
to use its name without permission. The district is working on its own site,
and doesn't want the information duplicated, wrote Simpson, who also was
troubled by the commercial aspect of the venture.
"We feel that by having these sponsors' names on our (well, their
version of our) site, we are giving tacit endorsement of these vendors,"
she wrote.
Several others were upset by incorrect information on the site (the company
does invite schools to correct the sites).
At issue for most schools is not that facts about them are on the Web,
but that they are associated with a for-profit venture.
The "School Store" portion of each school's site says that
"up to 40 percent" of purchases benefit the school. On average,
Collard said, about 35 percent of each subscription goes to the schools.
No points
Charts on the site show how much of a subscription is converted into
"technology points." A search of 36 schools in East Lyme, Waterford,
New London, and Groton, Conn., found no points attributed to any schools
there.
Tom Wiley, a spokesman for Computers for Education, said the company
didn't have records yet of how much money had accrued for schools. The company
is also still unsure how many points it will allow to accumulate before
notifying schools, he said.
Crook would not disclose the company's profits for last year.
The company also offers to set up free e-mail for schools through the
site. There are advertisements on those e-mail sites, but they appear only
when the site is accessed after school hours.
For a $199 or $599 donation, which Collard said would probably come from
a local business, a computer kit can be purchased to expand a school's web
site. There are also places where donations can be made to post students'
artwork on the site.
James Watt, a professor of communications sciences at the University
of Connecticut, said he is unaware of another Internet site quite like the
ASD.
Watt, who is not a lawyer, said commercial speech is not protected like
other forms of expression. Generally, he said, individuals or groups must
give permission for their names to be used by money-making enterprises.
"This is an interesting, gray area," he said. "This is
clearly one of those cases where they pushed the envelope as far as one
could go."
Few legal precedents are established for such situations regarding the
Internet, he said.
The "School Store" portion of the web site was set up [in September],
Collard said. The company is in the process of making adjustments to the
site in response to schools' comments.
For one, the sites had been written in the first person, implying that
sentences such as "About Our School" were coming from the school
itself. That phrase has been changed to "School Information."
On school sites where schools did not contribute, the company will post
a note saying, "Information provided by ASD," Collard said. The
company will also set up links to schools' official sites at their request.
Schools also have the option to shut off the "School Store"
portion of the site by calling the company at (800) 444-4488, he said. But
the site doesn't advertise that option.
While schools can add or correct information on their sites, they cannot
remove them altogether.
"It's part of my goal to maintain the comprehensive nature of my
directory," Collard said. "We really don't want to be put in a
position where we take off information that's available everywhere else
on the Internet."
The site is not profitable for Computers for Education right now, Collard
said. The company was a bit disappointed that local businesses haven't jumped
at the opportunity to sponsor their schools' sites, he said.
"We do hope that at some point in the future it's a profitable venture
for us," Collard said.
More vendors are designing links to the site, which the company will
continue to modify, Crook said.
"It is a beautiful system when you think about being able to support
any school in America from anyplace in America," he said.
Heather Vogell is a staff writer for the New London Day
in New London, Conn. This article originally appeared in that newspaper
on Oct. 10, 1997, and is reprinted courtesy of The Day Publishing Co. | 
