Imagine walking into your calculus final, opening your exam and seeing, in addition to cryptic numeric glyphs, an advertisement for your local dentist’s office or even for special pizza-delivery rates.

For some students enrolled at local Rancho Bernardo High School, these strangely located advertisements have become a commonplace sidenote to their studies. Tom Farber, a teacher at the high school faced with ever-dwindling financial support, saw his printing allotment shrink significantly this year, and resorted to selling advertisements — mostly from parents’ companies — in order to make up for the couple hundred dollars in photocopying fees that the school couldn’t supply under its constrained budget.

One must admit, it’s a simple and clever way to make the few extra bucks, seeing as no matter how injured the eceonomy, there’s always a place for advertising. But as institutions of all educational levels across the state fall into similar budget crises, it would be nothing short of an embarrassment to see this become a trend; compromising the quality of course material in order to satisfy advertising quotas for something as basic as printing costs cannot become the norm. Instead, perhaps the school could accept these ads (and much-needed compensation) to be displayed in locations other than directly alongside coursework — such as gymnasiums — and apply the money generated right back into necessary operations such as photocopying.

If Farber meant the unlikely tactic as a cry for help, it certainly has served its purpose.