Dear Superintendent,
It’s probably been some time since you’ve taken an IQ test, but there is no need to panic. Take a deep breath and do your best. We’re going to show you two pictures. The pictures will be of television sets.
Here is the first picture. Don’t worry, you can go back and look at the picture as often as you would like.
Picture 1
OK, some of you immediately know what you are looking at. It’s a Channel One TV set. Channel One TV sets are usually very old Magnavox sets like this one. Some are over twelve years old.
It’s a 19″ TV. Most of Channel One TVs are 19″ which makes them too small for classroom use. (If you have a 19″ set in your home, then stand in front of it and walk 25 feet away from it (if you can).) Some schools have 27″ Channel One TVs,. but the vast majority of districts are loaned Channel One’s inferior equipment. (But that’s another discussion, back to the quiz.)
Look closely at the Channel One TV set above. Do you see a VCR? (That was not THE question, so don’t get excited.) There is no VCR because Channel One doesn’t provide VCRs to classrooms. (They provide two VCRs to the school but one of them can’t be used by the school (it records the satellite signal) and the other must be near the headend unit, usually in the library.)
Now let’s look at the second picture.
Picture 2
Magnavox model 27MDTR20
This is another Magnavox TV set. Unlike the Channel One Magnavox, this one is out-of-the box brand new.
You can’t tell that this is bigger than the Channel One set, but it is – a lot bigger. This is a 27″ set that can actually be seen by a student in the back row. This set can be purchased one-at-a-time from Circuit City and other electronic stores for a retail price of $389.99. (Similarly sized and equipped TVs by different manufacturers are priced under $300.)
This TV set comes with a built-in VCR. Having a VCR in a classroom puts the teacher in control of the TV. Before we get to the question, we need to talk about title. Channel One TV sets are loaned to schools. No money changes hands so Channel One says they are “free.”
The school doesn’t own any of the equipment. The contract (that Channel One wrote) makes it clear that no school can ever get title to the equipment. This is a rental deal. Schoolchildren are to surrender their school time in payment of the rent.
If a school enters into a contract with Channel One and after a year ends the contract, then Channel One comes and takes its equipment (the wiring will remain, because it would be more expensive for Channel One to repair and repaint). If a school ends the contract after 10 years, the same thing would happen. Schools never build up any credit toward purchase of the TV equipment.
Once installed, schools must show the 12-to-13-minute Channel One News TV show to students at least 90% of all school days. The TV show, with the commercials, must be shown “between the bells” which means it must be on taxpayer time. It must be shown during a part of the day that is “compulsory” and it cannot be shown during lunch or some other time that would distract students from the show and its advertising. If Channel One News is to be shown on any day, then the school agrees to show students the entire program even if only a portion would be of benefit to students.(This is in the contract to protect Channel One’s customers, the national advertisers. (Schools are not Channel One’s customers.) Without this clause, schools would cut out the ads.)
Some school districts have contracts that also require them to show Channel One to a minimum of 80% of all classrooms. If a school shows Channel One the minimum number of days required by the contract, then a student will spend over 31 hours a year watching the TV show. As you know, an instructional week of school is 30 hours in most states, so each year the rental price for Channel
One is one instructional week of school. As a school superintendent, you probably know the exact cost of a week of school. A student under contract to Channel One from 6th to 12th grade will lose 7 weeks of school time.
OK, here’s the question:
Does it make more sense to buy the regular TV set for each classroom or to rent Channel One TVs?
95% of you will instantly know the correct answer. For the rest of you, don’t say your answer out loud yet. Review the chart below, then think again about your answer. By the way, we forgot to tell you that the 27″ Magnavox also has a built-in DVD player along with the VCR.
If you need to, check out the chart and we’ll be back after that.
|
The
Tale of Two Televisions |
Regular
Magnavox |
Channel One
Magnavox
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cost
|
$389.99 plus tax
|
Classroom
must watch 12-minute show for 162 days each school year. Average cost per classroom based on 23 students at 11 cents/minute = $4,900 each year. |
|
Ownership
|
School owns
|
School can never own
|
|
Age
|
New
|
Old
|
|
Size
|
27″
|
19″
|
|
VCR
Player |
Yes
|
No
|
|
DVD
Player |
Yes
|
No
|
|
Maintenance |
Standard warranty then school maintains*
|
Channel One pays for all maintenance
|
The correct answer is that it makes more sense to buy the TV. An overwhelming majority of U.S. secondary schools have rejected Channel One’s “free lunch” because their superintendents and school boards “did the math.”
Yes, Channel One agrees to maintain all their equipment, but how much “maintaining” is necessary for TVs and a TV network? The Channel One deal is so ridiculously expensive that a school could buy and throw away this 27″ Magnavox with VCR/DVD each month, from each classroom, and still save money over the Channel One deal.
If you instantly knew the right answer then your IQ is way, way over 100 – probably in the 200 range. If you said the Channel One TV is the smarter move, or if you hesitated for a moment before saying it is better to buy the TV set, then you failed the test. Let’s leave it at that. Take some time to read the Channel One contract and ask your school accountant to help you understand where you went wrong.
