Companies Lining Up To Offer Schools Free Web Sites

By Andrew Trotter

Schools that want to have their own presence in cyberspace without taxing school budgets are finding a number of companies willing to help.

Companies such as the FamilyEducation Co., KOZ Inc., and Computers for Education Inc. are offering schools free World Wide Web sites, e-mail, and education-related content. What they want in return, instead of the schools' money, is the opportunity to display advertisements or wares to students or families--and in some cases, the schools' implied endorsement.

"The gold seal of the local school district holds a lot of weight. That's the biggest stamp of approval there is," said Marc Johnson, a senior analyst at Jupiter Communications Inc., a New York City-based company that studies marketing...