But the demand that public schools market themselves in order to compete for precious government dollars has reached a fever pitch. As a consultant who has worked with dozens of school districts, I’m convinced that if schools want to improve their image with taxpayers, they must begin to use social media. The benefits are just too great, and as more of the taxpaying community ties into social media through mobile devices, “traditional” public schools have to become non-traditional, and join the conversation.

While I’m always supportive of teachers and principals using social media, either in the classroom or to engage with their community, when we start framing social media use (and school operations in general) as a business decision, we’ve already lost. When you’re forced to consider the usage of tools in school as if that school was a business, no longer are those schools being run as a public service but as a private enterprise, competing with other private enterprises for the eyes (and ultimately, the dollars) of parents and students.

Not really the best way to build a community school.