Marketing Needed to Stimulate Attendance.

• Position: Brief Article

Competition for enrollment has caused public schools to market themselves in order to attract students. Kent Stewart, professor of educational administration, Kansas State University, Manhattan, indicates that the practice of marketing is new to many public school officials who find themselves wing for students with other educational alternatives.

"If you were the president of a private school, you would realize that the kids who come to your private school come there for your reputation, or because you invited them, or because you marketed that school to the public, and students then made a decision to attend your school. In public schools, the kids all have to go. But now we have more and more parents opting to home school, or send their children to religious schools, or to magnet schools, or to a neighboring school district. So consequently, our public schools are now in competition with four other kinds of schools."

Stewart says the reasons parents are looking at other education options is because of what they read in the newspapers. Violence, drugs, alcohol, and pregnancy are some fears that cause parents to enroll their offspring elsewhere. "Parents say, `I don't want anything to do with public schools. They've got a bunch of kids ... with guns, and they're violent, dangerous places, and I'm sending my kid to a private school. I don't care how much it costs.' One kid can...