Can Social Media Influencers Save Public Schools?

As school choice continues to grow, public schools vie for students with innovative marketing approaches.

The TikTok logo seen displayed on a smartphone.

(Mateusz Slodkowski / Getty Images)

The TikTok logo seen displayed on a smartphone.

(Mateusz Slodkowski / Getty Images)

A teenage girl in a green crop top and sweatpants stands in front of her iPhone camera. Pulsing music plays over time lapses of the student and her friends in class—filling out worksheets, doing TikTok dances, working on iPads. It may seem to be a typical day-in-the-life video posted by a would-be teenage influencer, but this video is different. This student isn’t posting on her own or chasing personal fame. Instead, she is promoting her school as part of public education’s newest recruitment strategy.

In late March, Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) unveiled an initiative to recruit and pay high school students to post positive accounts of their time at DPSCD institutions. To get this job, eligible teens had to create a 60-second reel explaining why they would be a great fit for the role. Then applicants attended social-media etiquette and content-creation classes. Those selected receive $250 a month to serve as student influencers. Some of the resulting videos are more polished, featuring interviews with teachers, while others are pure teenage energy, full of teenage slang and YouTube-like intros.

The videos are a response to the growing number of schooling options available to students and families. As national enrollment declines, charter schools and voucher programs are leeching students from traditional public schools. Unlike district schools, which serve students within designated areas, charter schools do not cater to any fixed geographic zones. When a student enrolls to a charter school, a public institution loses not only that student but also the state and federal funding linked to their enrollment. Districts like Detroit hope influencer campaigns can help reverse that trend and win students back.

Davon Johnson, a sophomore student influencer at Detroit’s Demby High, only has 52 followers on Instagram, but he is enthusiastic about his new job. In one video for Teacher Appreciation Week, he and his friends approach a favorite teacher with a gift bag and a poster, bringing her to (happy) tears.

“My generation in particular—we’re always on social media. It’s just become a daily part of our lives,” Johnson said. “So I do think if you want to get in contact with my generation, you need to meet us where we’re at.”

Public school marketing isn’t new, but this strategy is, marking a transition from the traditional mailed flyers and even Facebook ads, to an approach that district administrators hope reads as more authentic and student-centered. But the rise of public school marketing may also mark a departure from long-held values of public education, experts say. The sheer volume of information overwhelms parents, and the pressure of packaging an experience and branding schools could distract educators, administrators, and families alike from what truly matters: quality of education.

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It is impossible to extricate public school marketing from the topic of school choice. For decades, most students attended their local public school, with a choice few attending mostly parochial private schools. Then, in 1991, Minnesota passed the country’s first charter-school law and forever changed the national school enrollment landscape. Charter schools are publicly funded but run by an outside group, meaning they have more autonomy than traditional public schools. Families are often drawn to charters for their specialized programs, which may center on language immersion, the arts, or a certain educational philosophy.

Because charter schools don’t have built-in enrollment like traditional schools, their survival depends on attracting enough students to sustain operations. Quickly, they turned to advertising and marketing to get their name out and boost enrollment. Throughout the ’90s and 2000s, states passed their own charter laws and today, there are charter schools in 45 states.

With students lured to charters by sleek websites and compelling curricula, traditional public schools realized they too needed to get in the marketing game. Between 2010 and 2021, 2 million students left traditional public schools and enrollment in charters more than doubled. Schools must “continuously explain why they’re worth public investment—that is no longer a given,” said Joel Cagne, CEO of K-12 schools marketing and communications consulting firm Allerton Hill. “Public schools, if they do survive and continue, have to really sing for their supper.”

Traditional public schools from coast to coast began advertising in competition with charter and private schools. There were giant ads on public transit, flyers in mailboxes, texts with reminders about application deadlines, and school tours.

The 2020 coronavirus pandemic only accel…