School districts say its practically free money, and advertisers love the captive audience that school buses provide.

Thats the problem, say opponents: Children are being forced to travel to school on moving media kiosks, and the tactic isnt much different than dressing teachers in sponsor-emblazoned uniforms.

“Parents who are concerned about commercial messages will have no choice,” said Josh Golin, associate director of Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood. “Parents wont be given the option to send their kids on the ad-free bus.”

Washington lawmakers considered the idea of school bus advertising this year, and the concept is also being tossed around in Ohio, New Jersey and Utah. About half a dozen states already allow bus advertising - including Colorado, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, Tennessee and Texas.

The idea can be traced back about 15 years, but budget woes have led to a recent resurgence.

“This issue comes up on a regular basis when funding gets tight and people are looking for alternative ways to fund school transportation,” said John Green, supervisor for school transportation at the California Department of Education.

Green has a long list of reasons California has not sold ads on its school buses, despite the regular onslaught of creative parents and lawmakers who suggest the idea to him and other state officials.

He says bus ads are rarely as lucrative as the school district expects, they may distract drivers and lead to accidents, and keeping unwanted ads off buses may not be as easy as people think.

A highway authority in Southern California recently lost a court case over its attempt to prevent the Minutemen militia group from “adopting a highway” and putting a sign on the freeway. The judge decided the case on First Amendment issues.

“Im thinking that logic would hold for school transportation,” Green said.

Jim OConnell, president of Media-Aim of Scottsdale, Ariz., says school bus advertising can be lucrative and in five years of selling the ads for more than 30 districts in Colorado and Arizona, hes never once heard of accident tied to bus advertising.

That translates into about $7 a day per bus for the length of the contract, still a fraction of the districts total $959 million budget but important at a time when every dollar counts.

In addition to having its logo on 100 of the districts 350 school buses, First Bank also will be prominently displayed in every high school gym, on the district Web page, in district stadiums and company announcements will be made during most varsity sporting events.

“Its not as large a revenue generator as you might think,” said Mike Griffith, a policy analyst for the Education Commission of the States. Paying a consultant to sell the ads usually cuts the profits enough to discourage districts, he said.

School bus advertising has been getting some traction in the past two years, as it did during the 2001 economic downturn, said Griffith. His organization does not keep track of which states allow school bus advertising, but he noted that few states have legislation or rules that specifically disallow it.

Washington state Sen. Paull Shin, a Democrat who represents a district north of Seattle, raised the idea during the Legislature this year because the states $2.8 billion budget deficit was literally keeping him awake at night with concern about its affect on schools and students, he said.

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Its further drained the financial resources of many congregations, seminaries and religious day schools. Some congregations have disappeared and schools have been closed. In areas hit hardest by the recession, worshippers have moved away to find jobs, leaving those who remain to minister to communities struggling with rising home foreclosures, unemployment and uncertainty.

Religion has a long history of drawing hope out of suffering, but theres little good news emerging from the recession. Long after the economy improves, the changes made today will have a profound effect on how people practice their faith, where they turn for help in times of stress and how they pass their beliefs to their children.

“In 2010, I think were going to see 10 or 15 percent of congregations saying theyre in serious financial trouble,” says David Roozen, a lead researcher for the Faith Communities Today multi-faith survey, which measures congregational health annually. “With around 320,000 or 350,000 congregations, thats a hell of a lot of them.”

The sense of community that holds together religious groups is broken when large numbers of people move to find work or if a ministry is forced to close.

“Im really still in the mourning process,” says Eve Fein, former head of the now-shuttered Morasha Jewish Day School in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.

The school, a center of religious life for students and their parents, had been relying on a sale of some of its property to stay afloat but land values dropped, forcing Morasha to shut down in June.

“I dont think any of us who were in it have really recovered,” Fein says. “The school was 23 years old. I raised my kids there.”

The news isnt uniformly bad. Communities in some areas are still moving ahead with plans for new congregations, schools and ministries, religious leaders say.

And many congregations say they found a renewed sense of purpose helping their suffering neighbors. Houses of worship became centers of support for the unemployed. Some congregants increased donations. At RockHarbor church in Costa Mesa, Calif., members responded so generously to word of a budget deficit that the church ended the fiscal year with a surplus.

“Were all a little dumbfounded,” says Bryan Wilkins, the church business director. “We were hearing lots of stories about people being laid off, struggling financially and losing homes. Its truly amazing.”

In the Great Depression, one of the bigger impacts was the loss of Jewish religious schools, which are key to continuing the faith from one generation to the next. Jonathan Sarna, a Brandeis University historian and author of “American Judaism,” says enrollment in Jewish schools plummeted in some cities and many young Jews of that period didnt have a chance to study their religion.

Enrollment in one group of 120 Jewish community day schools is down by about 7 percent this academic year, according to Marc Kramer, executive director of RAVSAK, a network of the schools. A few schools lost as many as 30 percent of their students. Many of the hundreds of other Jewish day schools, which are affiliated with Reform, Conservative and Orthodox movements, are also in a financial crunch.

Kramer says 2009-10 will be a “make or break” year for Jewish education, partly because of the additional damage to endowments and donors from Bernard Madoffs colossal fraud.

Overall, U.S. Jewish groups are estimated to have lost about one-quarter of their wealth.

“Its going to be painful,” Kramer says. “There will be some losses.”

The Association for Christian Schools International, which represents about 3,800 private schools, says enrollment is down nationally by nearly 5 percent. About 200 Christian schools closed or merged in the last academic year, 50 more than the year before.

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“People should understand how the system is falling short today and how it really contradicts our commitment to equal opportunity,” Gates told The Associated Press. “If we dont change it now, it will hurt the future of the country as a whole.”

Only one-third of American high school students graduate with the skills necessary to succeed in college and the nations workplaces, he said.

“All too often, the value and benefit of education are not real enough to kids,” said Tony Miller, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. Charities and industry wont have to go it alone; about $100 billion of the federal stimulus package is dedicated to improvements in education, said Miller.

The “Get Schooled” initiative focuses on low graduation rates in college and high school and the accountability of teachers. Gates criticized the practice of salaries rewarding seniority over proven efficacy, calling it a detriment to quality education.

A student drops out of an American high school every 26 seconds, according to the Seattle-based Gates Foundation.

At that rate, not enough American children are graduating high school and college to stay competitive in the global marketplace, said Viacom President and CEO Philippe Dauman.

“We dont know much about substance, were about fluff at Viacom,” Dauman said with a laugh. The Viacom chief, whose networks also include VH1, CMT, Spike TV, TV Land and Logo, said he told Gates a year ago, “We know kids, we know how to reach them; if you provide the substance we can be the megaphone.”

To launch the five-year campaign, the documentary “Get Schooled” was set to premiere on all of Viacoms networks simultaneously at 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday night.

The documentary features pop singer Kelly Clarkson, basketball star LeBron James and President Barack Obama, but the programs real focus is on people behind the scenes, like a presidential speechwriter, and how education brought them success.

Dauman said the “Get Schooled” initiative would find its way into plot lines and programs, like BETs documentary “Bring Your A Game,” which featured prominent black men who have achieved success.

But “were not going to go to all PBS-type programming,” Dauman said. “In order to reach kids, you have to entertain them.”

At a Los Angeles event to launch the “Get Schooled” campaign, New York City schools chief Joel Klein said he was hopeful the approach would succeed because “trying to get traction with the millions and millions of kids in school is something thats been a challenge.”

“When you bring the resources and the vision that the Gates family and foundation has, coupled with the distribution assets that Viacom has - the role models, the glitz they can produce - it feels like a good mix of stuff that will capture kids,” Klein said.

Klein and others praised the successes of charter schools, which have drawn the ire of union representatives and school officials. Union leaders in Los Angeles say that such schools would decrease the size of districts and that instructors at charter schools are not covered by unions.

An e-mail to the nations largest labor union, the National Education Association, was not returned immediately Tuesday.

Privately operated schools undertook fresh approaches to schooling, had happier teachers and inspired healthy competition in achievement among New York City schools, said Klein.

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“They really are an effective source of long-term financing that we can rely on and enables us to do what were best at, which is running schools, and do what theyre best at, which is long-term real estate ownership,” said Barry Sharp, chief financial officer for Arlington, Va.-based Imagine. “Its a good fit.”

Charter school supporters hope the move by Kansas City-based Entertainment Properties is the first of many such partnerships as they deal with increased interest from parents but not more money to build or expand their facilities.

In the past decade, the number of U.S. charter schools has tripled to 4,618, while the number of students enrolled has almost quadrupled to more than 1.4 million, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

While charter schools are publicly funded, they often dont have the same access to bonds and other financing available to mainstream public schools. That forces many to operate in places like storefronts or church basements, said Todd Ziebarth, vice president of policy for the alliance.

“I think its probably the biggest challenge facing charters, not only finding space but once you find it how do you pay for it, particularly if youre going to buy it,” Ziebarth said. “I think its limiting their growth and its limiting the expansion of existing schools.”

Charter school supporters say the need for construction funding is high, and the entry of a for-profit player like Entertainment Properties signals that theyve gone from being an educational curiosity to being seen as a future significant part of the educational landscape.

David Brain, chief executive of Entertainment Properties, said he initially was skeptical of investing in charter schools. But he said he looked deeper and determined that most of the charter school operations that had failed either never opened or were independent operations with little experience.

Focusing on large players who know how to operate schools, hire teachers and develop a curriculum, he said, provides the company a more dependable return.

“Were not speculators, were investors, so I have to invest in property making money for me and my customers today,” said Brain, whose trust oversees a $2.6 billion portfolio. “The charter public schools offer lenders/leaseholders a dependable revenue stream backed by a government payer. Its a very desirable equation.”

Enrollment at Imagine Renaissance Academy of Environmental Science and Math, Kensington Campus - among the schools sold - was near capacity by its second year, with 515 students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

While the renovated 19th-century school in Kansas City looks like any other public school, there are subtle differences: the color-coded polo shirts the students wear to signify their grade, smaller class sizes and an added emphasis on science.

“We would have had to go out and use some of the money to maintain our investment in our existing buildings and therefore it wouldnt have made it into the new ones the same way,” he said.

While charter advocates welcome the interest of private investors, they wish the focus was less on the larger networks and more on the vast majority of independent schools that could use help.

Jeanne Allen, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Education Reform, said states and individual school districts ultimately must change how they allocate funds, either allowing charters to use bonds and other public construction funds or give them more money to build their own facilities.

“Its unfair to require a public school, regardless what kind, to have to rely only on philanthropy or alternative financing to create a building that is adequate for kids,” Allen said.

But that shouldnt be at the cost of established schools that need repairs or new buildings, said Kay Brilliant, director of policy and practice at the National Education Association, which represents public school teachers.

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A record number of shoppers, shut off from credit and short on cash, are relying on Kmarts layaway program to pay for all of their kids school needs, said Tom Aiello, a spokesman for Kmarts parent Sears Holdings Corp. Layaway allows shoppers to pay over time, interest- free, and pick up their merchandise when its paid in full.

“Its a sight. In the past, we would see layaway start to pick up around Halloween” as people get a jump start for Christmas, said David Travis, manager of a Kmart store in Conover, N.C.

Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corp. said its layaway business is stronger than a year ago. And e-Layaway.com, which offers online layaway services for about 1,000 merchants, has seen its business double from the same time last year. Customers are setting aside even $25 calculators and $30 backpacks.

The word “layaway” had more than double the interest among U.S. searchers in August 2009 than it had in August 2008, according to Google Insights for Search.

Retailers that dont offer layaway are seeing financially strapped shoppers keep buying smaller amounts and using more cash than credit to pay.

“It just tells you that consumers have no money - even that $30 backpack is something they cant afford,” said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of Americas Research group.

Layaway has its roots in the Great Depression. It became passe in the past two decades with the rise of credit cards.

But the recession and financial crisis have caused banks to raise rates, pare credit limits and close accounts. For some consumers, layaway is the best option to budget for purchases.

Buying a little at a time and other signs of stress are casting a dark cloud over the holiday season, which accounts for as much as 40 percent of annual sales for many retailers.

Many economists expect to see another holiday season of sales declines, on top of last years Christmas period, the weakest in several decades. Thats raising more doubts about an economic recovery because consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity.

Kmarts Travis predicts this Christmas will be a “record-setting” layaway season.

Tracey Y. Chandler of Rocky Mount, N.C., started using layaway at the local Kmart last Christmas as the economy soured and again this past summer to furnish her 8-year-old daughters bedroom.

Last weekend, she put aside $150 worth of back-to-school clothes at Sears stores.

“The job market is too unstable to take on additional debt,” said Chandler. She and her husband both work as teachers assistants, and she fears they could be casualties of budget cuts.

Sears Holdings brought back layaway to its namesake department stores last holiday season after a two-decade hiatus. This year, the company also is copying old-fashioned Christmas club bank accounts to help its Kmart and Sears customers save for gifts.

Competitors have been slow to follow, which may give stores like Sears who have them an edge.

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The $50,000 campaign by a school system still trying to rebound from a long history of racial segregation and white flight is an example of efforts under way in several cities to retain students. School districts are highlighting improvements to halt declining head counts so they can retain their funding, especially in light of drastic state budget cuts.

“People are still stuck with perceptions of yesteryear, and are not really aware of what we have to offer today,” Richmond Superintendent Yvonne Brandon said. “Its not perfect, but be a part of the solution and become invested now.”

Like other urban school districts, Richmond, where 88 percent of students are black, 7 percent are white, and 71 percent are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, has struggled on many fronts.

Still, the color brochures distributed by volunteers spell out whats going well, including: All city high schools have met state accreditation standards; every city elementary school offers foreign-language instruction; and the number of students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses grew by 275 percent over the last year.

Other urban school systems have undertaken similar recruitment campaigns, including Detroit, Milwaukee and Washington, D.C., all districts that continue to lose students, which translates into less money to maintain educational programs.

Detroits fiscally troubled system has lost more than 45 percent of its students over the last decade, leading to scores of school closures. The district this month launched a $500,000 “Im In” campaign to keep students in the district, enlisting the help of ex-NBA player Derrick Coleman and comedian Bill Cosby and donations from private companies - including pro-bono work from advertising and public-relations agencies, spokesman Steven Wasko said.

The school system gets about $7,560 in state funds for each enrolled student. Its enrollment target is 83,777, and “any student above that translates into more funding,” Wasko said.

But Michael Van Beek, education policy director at the libertarian-leaning Mackinac Center for Public Policy, says that despite such marketing efforts, Detroit, Grand Rapids and Flint, Mich., continue to lose students at a remarkable rate.

“At urban schools that have a track record of continuing to underperform, parents are still voting with their feet,” Van Beek said.

In Richmond, middle-class families are starting to attend a handful of their local schools but many continue to move to the suburbs or opt for private or Catholic education.

About two-thirds of the citys 34,800 school-age children were enrolled in public schools last school year. A decade ago, three-quarters of Richmonds school-age kids were enrolled in city schools.

Her father, Gov. A. Linwood Holton, made a point to escort his children to their new schools, images that were captured in photographs published across the country.

Holton thinks people should notice whats going on now in many schools, including solid academics and extracurricular activities. Her daughter, Annella, for example, enjoys theater classes - and Holton is pleased by attention given to the arts despite tough economic times and the pressures of high-stakes testing.

She said her children have benefited from attending classes with students of different races, religions and socio-economic backgrounds.

“I see a lot of people paying a lot of money for private schools or moving to the suburbs,” Holton said in an interview. “They need to look into it and give it a try.”

Carolyn Waters and her daughters, Rosa and Isabel, were among families that walked through neighborhoods near their home in early August, hanging brochures on doorknobs and mailboxes.

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Its an imposing sales job, especially with the districts $259 million deficit and his decision to close 29 schools and lay off more than 1,000 teachers before classes start Sept. 8.

“You hear all the negative,” Harvey said this week following a surprise visit from Bobb to her west side home. “My theory is change doesnt come overnight. Im not saying Im willing to put my foot in the door. I have to wait and see.”

Thats a start for Bobb, a career public administrator given a one-year, $260,000 contract in March by Gov. Jennifer Granholm to rescue the district. Each student coaxed back brings along $7,550 in state funding.

Bobb has to convince skeptical, angry and disillusioned parents that decades of mismanagement, corruption and subpar standardized test scores - not to mention classrooms without textbooks and bathrooms without toilet paper - are over.

Since Aug. 10, he has taken five neighborhood walks of about three hours each, speaking to more than 100 parents.

“Some parents are changing their minds about coming back to DPS, coming to DPS for the first time or not going someplace else,” Bobb said. “Just as valuable has been the opportunity to get real-time intelligence on the ground directly from parents.”

Detroit Public Schools had 182,516 students in 1992-1993. Enrollment dipped below 100,000 last year; Bobb is budgeting for 83,777 students this fall.

He is battling charter schools as well as suburban schools - facing their own declining student base and less state revenue - that are opening their doors to Detroits disenchanted.

A $500,000 “Im In” student-retention campaign is featuring celebrity help from the likes of comedian Bill Cosby and a downtown display of 172 blue doors, each representing what Bobb calls a “solid education and a promising future” at each school. A parade and back-to-school rally will take place Thursday.

“I want to keep your kids in DPS,” Bobb told parents at soon-to-close Birney Elementary in Harveys neighborhood. Designed for 559 students, Birney has struggled to bring in 230.

This fall, another school, Durfee, will absorb Birneys students. Low enrollment is dictating similar scenarios citywide.

The contracts of 33 principals have not been renewed.

Another concern for leery parents is safety. District records show 35 fighting offenses at Durfee - where Birney students are supposed to attend this year - between the start of the last school year and April. One student was found with a gun, and there were four physical assault cases and two sexual assault incidents.

“Im going to send them to charter schools. Im not sending them to Durfee,” 34-year-old Markita Wells, whose two youngest children were to attend Birney this fall, initially told Bobb during his walk Tuesday.

But 15 minutes later, her mood was softened by his pitch that changes are coming, especially at Durfee.

Wells later said she would give Durfee a chance.

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Consumers have eased spending on non-necessities as unemployment climbs in the recession, which started in December 2007. Back-to-school spending will drop 13 percent this year, according to the National Retail Federation, a Washington-based trade group.

“People are trying to budget, but back-to-school is sensitive,” said Deb Stein, who heads Huntington Nationals retail banking in Columbus, Ohio, where the bank is based. “Parents are embarrassed if they cant provide it. This is the kind of stuff that really hits home,” she said in a telephone interview.

Parents will spend about $473 for supplies and activities for elementary school kids this year. Thats 34 percent more than in 2007 because of the higher cost of musical-instrument rent and newer fees for things like art supplies, club dues and magazine subscriptions, said Maureen Brown, a bank spokeswoman.

High-schoolers will require about $999 apiece in equipment and fees for extracurricular items, including test preparation and sports fees, 12 percent more than in 2007. The cost of middle-school preparedness rose 1 percent to about $536.

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“It really frees up the teacher to be able to work in small groups and work individually with students on academics,” said Bouma, whose son, Henry, is in a class of 24.

As budget cuts hit school districts across the nation, moms and dads are digging into their own pockets or organizing fundraisers to buy school supplies, save programs, even preserve teachers jobs.

“We used to raise money to buy art supplies for kids who couldnt afford to buy their own. Now we buy the art teacher,” said Bill Williams, executive director of the Washington state PTA. “Thats somewhat of an exaggeration, but not much of one.”

The practice comes with some controversy.

Some fear it will only widen the gap between rich and poor school systems and set a dangerous precedent that will make it easier for politicians to shortchange public education. In New York City, parent groups ran afoul of the teachers union for using their own money to hire classroom aides.

“It is commendable that parents are so dedicated to quality education for every student that they raise money to pay for teachers and other necessary resources. Yet it is deplorable that any group has to raise money to fund basic resources we know students need to succeed,” said Bill Raabe, director of collective bargaining for the National Education Association, the nations largest teachers union.

The economic crisis has led states to slash money for public schools by an estimated $350 billion over the next two years, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

As a result, PTAs - known more for funding field trips and teacher-appreciation gifts - have gotten more serious about fundraising. James Martinez, a spokesman for the national PTA, estimated the nations 25,000 PTAs raised close to $1 billion this past school year.

“PTAs are just having to come up with new and innovative and creative ways to raise money, and theyre doing it,” Martinez said.

In Thousand Oaks, Calif., for example, the PTA is starting an electronics recycling program. Volunteers are going to collect old TVs, computer monitors and keyboards and sell them to a recycler. They hope the program will not only bring in a few thousand dollars a year, but also teach kids about recycling.

On Washington states San Juan Island, a wealthy enclave near Seattle, an all-out community effort this past school year to make up for a budget shortfall approaching $800,000 pulled in more than $550,000 in four months, said Deb Nolan, PTA president at San Juan High. The drive saved a $12,000 hands-on science program, preserved some teaching positions, and kept a program that helps struggling elementary students.

In New York City during the past school year, 18 of the citys 1,500 schools had nearly 200 teachers and aides who had been hired directly by parent groups, even though the school system banned such under-the-table hiring in the mid-1990s.

The teachers union filed a grievance after it discovered some of the hires were being paid less than union members. The district gave principals until the end of the school year to fix the problem.

Some fear that relying on parents generosity could leave poor districts even further behind. These districts do not have the well-to-do residents, the big property tax bases or the successful local businesses that wealthier communities have.

“That makes these communities and the schools in them more fragile, and it hurts them most when programs are cut and teachers are laid off,” said Daria Hall, director of K-12 policy for the Education Trust, a nonprofit organization.

Even in some upper-middle class areas, parents know they cant possibly make up for the money lost.

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Although federal officials recently threatened to kill this paperless model, other cities are looking to replicate it. Food service directors say it eliminates the costly bureaucracy that both deters needy families from applying for subsidized meals and stigmatizes those who do complete the forms.

“There are so many families that dont get access to the free meals that they would probably qualify for,” said Katie Wilson, school nutrition director in Onalaska, Wis.

Legislation introduced in Congress last month could expand the “universal meals” approach to millions of students and help President Barack Obama fulfill his pledge to end childhood hunger by 2015, supporters say.

Universal meals mean better nutrition and a better educational experience for a greater percentage of low-income children, said Wilson, who is also president of School Nutrition Association.

“We have all the science that shows good nutrition helps kids succeed in the classroom,” she said. “We need to look at it as part of the school day.”

In other districts, most parents must fill out applications to determine whether their children qualify for free or low-cost meals.

But experts say many forms are never submitted due to language barriers, literacy issues, humiliation and other factors. Students who do return the paperwork can be embarrassed in cafeteria lines, where others can see how much - if anything - they pay for their food.

In Los Angeles public schools, some high school students “would rather not eat than be stigmatized,” said food services director Dennis Barrett, who would welcome universal meals.

The Philadelphia model began in 1991, when less than a third of the districts 200,000 students were receiving free or low-cost meals despite statistics showing that 80 percent qualified, according to lawyer Jonathan Stein of Community Legal Services.

With the help of Stein and others, the district lobbied the U.S. Department of Agriculture - which oversees the federal school lunch program - to automatically qualify entire school populations based on local socioeconomic data.

The pilot program has been consistently renewed but never expanded to other cities. Today, about 200 of Philadelphias 270 schools serve universal meals; those that do not require applications, although some students are automatically enrolled through their familys participation in other welfare programs.

The government reimburses schools based on the percentage of eligible students. The school absorbs the costs of the remaining free meals, which Masch said evens out because of the money saved on administrative costs.

During a recent lunch period at Thurgood Marshall, the cafeteria served up meatball sandwiches, yogurt, oranges and milk.

Such meals are a huge help for Janet Hernandez, who has three children at the school. Hernandez, 35, said the program benefits students and especially working parents, who save time and money knowing their children will have a meal waiting for them at school.

“Sometimes we need that extra little help as far as food goes,” said Hernandez, who volunteers at the school. “Thats one less thing that we have to worry about as parents.”

But during the waning months of the Bush administration, the Agriculture Department decided to end Philadelphias 17-year pilot program in 2010. Continuing the model “would be inconsistent with the intent of the pilot authority,” regional director James Harmon wrote to state education officials.

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