Top Story: Hating on Public Schools
Republicans know America’s beleaguered public schools need help.
Red States are pushing for universal school vouchers, slimming budgets to skeletal levels, and getting really excited about little kids learning at computers at home.
Trump Republicans are poised to cut spending for kids with disabilities, punish schools for teaching kindness, and shrink the Department of Education.
A lot of this can feel really overwhelming, and it’s easy to get caught up in the weeds — particularly if you too know a lot of the nation’s public schools really are failing kids.
But it’s important to stay focused on:
The larger goals of the school privatization movement. (Hello, Project 2025!)
What people who believe in public schools want to do to improve them.
Reporting Right has some tips on how to do that.
Tips on Covering School Privatization
Put it in context. School privatization pushers are part of a larger national effort to shrink government. Every story can’t go into great detail on that — but some should.
Follow the money. Education in America is a multi-billion dollar market.Not surprisingly, school privatization efforts are often supported by the very people who serve to make money in the sector. Your audience should know this.
Ask about who’s minding the store. Proponents of school privatization are often big fans of limited regulatory measures on school operators. This is important because parents often don’t realize how little charter and voucher schools are actually being monitored.
Is this really about “Parents’ Rights”?
Parents with kids stuck in poor-performing schools really do have reason to want better options for their children. But a lot of charter schools and voucher schools aren’t actually offering better educations. Your readers should always know when you are writing about these schools, which ones are actually making good on their promises.
UPCOMING EVENT: Remember, the cartoonist at WAPO that Jeff Bezos silenced? Anne Telnaes will be on a Zoom Thursday May 29th at 8 pm ET. Sign up HERE.
Also In The News
We’re Reading
The Education Wars by Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider
Comic Relief
If You Like What You Are Reading:
Please share Reporting Right on your social media feeds.
Reach out for help at ReportingRight@googlegroups.com.
Tell your fellow reporters to subscribe.
See You Next Week!
Our Staff
Executive Editor Kyle Spencer
Guest Editor Chloe Taft
Our Board of Advisors
Alex Aronson, executive director of Court Accountability
David Armiak, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy
Connor Gibson, founder of Grassrootbeer Investigations
Maurice Cunningham, retired associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Boston and author of Dark Money and The Politics of School Privatization.
Isaac Kamola, associate professor of political science at Trinity College, founder of Faculty First Responders and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
Nancy MacLean, William H. Chafe distinguished professor of history and public policy at Duke University and author of Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
Ralph Wilson, founder of the Corporate Genome Project and co-author of Free Speech and Koch Money, Manufacturing a Campus Culture War
SOS: Need reporting help? Contact:
ReportingRight@googlegroups.com
Copyright (C) 2024. All rights reserved.