One has to admit it’s a unique solution to a problem that keeps on growing. It’s an understatement to say schools need funds. The growing need for more money will likely lead to more and more out-of-the-box ideas as time goes on and school funds keep getting cut.

As an isolated case, there seems to be little harm in Farber’s selling of ad space on an exam. It recoups him some of the money that he spends out of his own pocket to print the exams allowing him to do more to help his students prepare, and the ads have been fairly unobtrusive so far.

However, the practice can be a very slippery slope. Many students have trouble finishing exams within the allotted time. An advertisement, by its very nature, is designed to draw a person’s attention. What does a person tell a student who failed to finish in time because he or she was looking at an ad?

More disturbingly, what happens if an advertiser begins asking to have some control over the content of a test? At this point, it’s easy to say that a teacher would simply reject an ad if that were to happen.

If the idea catches on, though, we may find ourselves with a district, not a teacher, selling the ads. Once an income stream has been opened, it’s very hard to turn it off. Is it really that difficult to imagine a money-desperate district asking for changes in order to keep a large advertiser happy?

It’s also likely ads will get bigger and more intrusive as schools discover their lucrative value. As that happens, even the most attentive student may find it hard to get past the ads and work on the exam.

It’s also possible that ads may lead to students being exposed to things that their parents are trying to keep away from them, such as ads for violent toys being place on an elementary-level kid’s exam. What recourse do the parents have? They can’t ask that their student not take the test.

We wish the answer to the problem was as simple as saying schools should get more funds. While they definitely need them, it’s unrealistic to expect that to happen. Schools will increasingly need to find their own funding. However, they have to be aware of the sanctity of the classroom. They can’t forget students are there to learn, and not be sold as a commodity to an advertising firm.

Out-of-the-box thinking can be helpful, but it cannot compromise the school’s primary mission. This is one idea that should go back to the drawing board.