Oops! Typo takes the 'L' out of 'public' in charter schools ad

A charter school organization's ad features an embarrassing misspelling. KING's Drew Mikkelsen reports.

There are some words that auto-correct or spell-checkers just don't catch. They might be spelled right, but mean something oh-so-wrong in the context. And this one proved an embarrassment for a charter school organization in Washington state.

An advertisement that ran in the Sunday and Monday editions of The News Tribune in Tacoma left out a single letter in quite the unfortunate spot, NBC station KING of Seattle reported.

"Are you interested in Pubic Charter Schools?" the ad mistakenly read.


"This was our mistake," Jim Spady, a spokesperson for the Washington Charter School Resource Center, told KING. The center wrote the newspaper ad, which was supposed to publicize an upcoming conference.

The News Tribune also reportedly did not notice that "public" was misspelled.

"It's an honest error," The News Tribune's marketing manager, Sue Piotrkowski, told KING.

The newspaper ran a corrected version of the ad Wednesday, according to KING.

Correction: University of Texas doesn't have school of 'pubic' affairs

Last month, Washington state voters passed an initiative that allows for charter schools, The Seattle Times reported.

Drew Mikkelsen, KING's south bureau chief, contributed to this report.

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Nothing like adolescent humor to lighten your day

  • 11 votes
Reply#1 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 2:54 PM EST

Hey, anything to get the kids to pay attention right?

I know I would have been more interested in pubic school than public school when I was a teenager.

  • 8 votes
#1.1 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:26 PM EST

Maybe they should rethink that weed law they just revised.

JK for those that are about to defend to the death that science proved that intelligence is increased when high, blah, blah, blah, whine, whine, whine, etc.

  • 4 votes
#1.2 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:54 PM EST

Well Bebop,

I'm guessing you're not high right now but you're not making any sense either.

  • 5 votes
#1.3 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:43 PM EST

I guess the charter school doesn't specialize in English...

  • 8 votes
#1.4 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:52 PM EST

Note to everyone who uses a spell checker: It is not a grammar checker or a syntax checker.

  • 2 votes
#1.5 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:55 PM EST

Dude must have been stoned since the new law there went into effect! HAHAHA!

  • 3 votes
#1.6 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:47 PM EST

I'm all for sex ed in school, but I think this is just a bit too far.

  • 2 votes
#1.7 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:52 PM EST

These are the people who are going to take millions in tax dollars away from the PUBLIC schools for a sham that has shown it doesn't work. We all wonder why our country is going to hell, here is yet another fine example.

  • 2 votes
#1.8 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:53 PM EST

Wow, more fluff from NBC news. I guess this titallating 13 year boy old humor story is more important than the union violence that erupted in Michigan yesterday...that NBC didn't report.... as the thugs beat a conservative journalist and ripped down a tent occupied by a peaceful group suepporting the right to work law. You had to catch that story on Fox, complete with on the site video.

  • 1 vote
#1.9 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:04 PM EST

Once again the idiots in the media report another story that is useless.

  • 2 votes
#1.10 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 10:52 PM EST

Awwwww... Come on now people! What are we 8 years old? We gonna laugh at the word "poop" as well? How is this even a story? Slow news day?

  • 1 vote
#1.11 - Thu Dec 13, 2012 12:21 AM EST

I don't really see the point in advertising it...most all the students at my University had already caught on to the 'Pubic Affair!' And most were quite active in the Pubic area of study without any formal advertisement, and yes I was one of the many! Oh the good old days when you couldn't die from casual sex with multiple unknown people of the opposite sex. (OK to be PC, I guess they could be the same sex if you happened to be Gay...good enough?)

    #1.12 - Thu Dec 13, 2012 1:10 AM EST

    The best one I ever saw was years ago a politician was slashing funding by signing a bunch of bills.

    The headline read "Johnson's pen is a sword!" but they forgot the space between 'pen' and 'is'.

    • 2 votes
    #1.13 - Thu Dec 13, 2012 1:34 AM EST
    Reply

    Maybe it worked out well...more people probably read the ad than would have normally.

    • 12 votes
    Reply#2 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 2:58 PM EST

    lol..probably.

      #2.1 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:50 PM EST
      Reply

      The Simpsons:

      "This place must be hot. They don't need a big ad, or even correct spelling."

      • 5 votes
      Reply#3 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:07 PM EST

      Who needs school when there's automatic spell check, right?

      • 2 votes
      Reply#4 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:13 PM EST

      Or calculator.

      • 2 votes
      #4.1 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:53 PM EST

      Hell, just fix the word or shave the armpits.

        #4.2 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:30 PM EST
        Reply

        Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court graduated here.

        • 10 votes
        Reply#5 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:15 PM EST

        Seriously?

        Forget the copy writer. Has this newspaper never heard of a proofreader?

        • 1 vote
        Reply#6 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:21 PM EST

        Forget the newspaper - did the school ever hear of proofreading since it was their copy, and they even acknowledged responsibility. Sorry - if I were a Tacoma Taxpayer paying for the Charter school I would not be happy and I sure wouldn't send my kid there.

        • 1 vote
        Reply#7 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:27 PM EST

        There are typo's everywhere each and every day, I'd say 90% of the articles here on MSNBC have some sort of typo in them. Soooo, why is this story national news? Do MSNBC writers have to have a quota of stories per day or something? I would think there are more important things going on in the world than a story of a stupid typo.

        • 1 vote
        Reply#8 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:27 PM EST

        Other peoples being as bad is no excuse.

        It's a story because it's not your everyday kind of typo. If it would have been "pulic" instead of "pubic" then it would not have been news.

        Stop whining and start thinking.

        • 2 votes
        #8.1 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:47 PM EST

        Politics Suck....This is not a NEWS story it is a humerous FEATURE story. Please try to determine the difference.

        • 1 vote
        #8.2 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:51 PM EST
        Reply

        Notoriety always makes for more interest.Besides, consider the dumbing down of American kids across this nation. Then look at the sex education kids are getting with birth control practice kits in classes for males/females with free condoms being handed out like candy legally without parents permission. Why this would be truth in advertising.

        • 1 vote
        Reply#9 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:32 PM EST

        Good to see something OTHER THAN MURDERING FREAKS in the news. Light-hearted stuff is ALWAYS WELCOME.

        • 10 votes
        Reply#10 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:33 PM EST

        Oh the irony! MSNBC pokes fun at other people's typos, yet the stories on this same website yesterday were rife with typos and copy/paste errors.

        • 6 votes
        Reply#11 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:38 PM EST

        Oh no!

          Reply#12 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:40 PM EST

          Thought I'd get a jump on what's sure to follow from some of our more "enlightened" bloggers: We should a) fire, b) incarcerate, c) maim or d) publicly humiliate the a) school superintendant, b) the local school board, c) the copy editor or d) the entire Washington State Board of Education for the mistake. As Kev Bik noted: Light-hearted stuff is always welcome but over half the bloggers on this site can't recognize it when they see it.

          • 1 vote
          Reply#13 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:45 PM EST

          Given some of the recent scandals in charter schools, it sounds like it was just truth in advertising.

          • 5 votes
          Reply#14 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:46 PM EST

          Maybe it's just my sense of humor, but I thought it was funny. Yea, I know...I'm strange, you don't have to tell me.

          • 2 votes
          Reply#15 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:50 PM EST

          No such thing as a public charter school. They are all private with government voucher funding.

          • 2 votes
          Reply#16 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:52 PM EST

          So you're saying don't call them pubics, call them privates?

          • 25 votes
          #16.1 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:12 PM EST
          • 4 votes
          #16.2 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:35 PM EST

          Dana: that was FUNNY. score

          • 5 votes
          #16.3 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:37 PM EST

          Dana...GOOD ONE!!!! Nice to read something actually witty here.

          • 2 votes
          #16.4 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:54 PM EST

          Dana,

          Well played. A welcome relief from the ususal crotchety posts.

          • 2 votes
          #16.5 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:57 PM EST

          Thank you. It proves that even a blind nut finds a squirrel once in a while. Or something like that....

          • 4 votes
          #16.6 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:08 PM EST

          I'm a public school teacher, and have to laugh that the Charter School Industry can't even spell correctly.

          We public school teachers get beat over the head all the time at what big failures we are, and that everything should go Charter, and or, Private.

          All I have to say is: "HA HA !!!!!" .....

          • 3 votes
          #16.7 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:40 PM EST

          Good one Dana!!

          • 1 vote
          #16.8 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:51 PM EST
          Reply

          Or as Martha Davis and The Motels would say, "Take the "L" out of pu-blic and it's puuu-bic".....

            Reply#17 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:24 PM EST

            It's a hair raising situation. Are they nuts not to have caught that? What a bunch of stooges like Larry, Moe and CURLY. Maybe I should clam up.

            • 2 votes
            Reply#18 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:48 PM EST

            Dana-3641394 gets BEST POST AWARD! Good one! I lol'd. A lot! :-)

            • 4 votes
            Reply#19 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:49 PM EST

            Thank you. It sort of fell in my lap.

            • 4 votes
            #19.1 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:00 PM EST
            Reply

            And because of spell check, kids think they are being visited by Satan this Christmas......

            • 1 vote
            Reply#20 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:57 PM EST

            FAIL. I remeber some neonazi on my college campus posted fliers challanging anyone to a "pubic debate". There was much joking.

              Reply#21 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:10 PM EST

              You went to college where? What is sad is I would think someone posting on a story about "typos" would actually go back and re-read their post before sending but guess not lol.

              Remember

              Neo-Nazi

              Challenging

                #21.1 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 8:52 PM EST
                Reply

                Sounds like a hairy situation to me.

                • 1 vote
                Reply#22 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:33 PM EST

                Does anybody else find it ironic that NBCNEWS is poking fun at spelling errors?

                  Reply#23 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:40 PM EST

                  That's why you should send your students to public school.

                    Reply#24 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 5:58 PM EST

                    Really NBC? Cmon. Is this really a major story? A funny typo? Should be on maybe Leno, but not on something that is supposed to be news. Kind of childish in your thinking there aren't you? Oh wait, forgot, you liberal media types and the WH administration and dems you work for want to get rid of charter schools because generally they work, and takes the excuses out of excessive education funding for worthless programs to gain political favor out of the mix. And I aint doing my spell check!

                    • 1 vote
                    Reply#25 - Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:22 PM EST
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