If you have a student or teacher in your family — or you know a student or teacher or a school bus driver or anyone who works in a school district or the education field — you’ve experienced disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. When the education of our youth is affected, our community is affected too.
A recent report by McKinsey & Company, a well trusted research and consulting company, reveals COVID-19’s impact on education has a ripple effect on families, health and local economies. That ripple effect can have long-term consequences for all of Snohomish County’s 18 cities and 800,000 residents.
Based on the feedback we heard through The Daily Herald’s recent community survey and the conversations we’re hosting, residents want to know what’s going on with education — what’s working, what’s not. Without information about the challenges facing K-12 education and potential solutions, it’s tough to make informed decisions or engage in action.
Although The Daily Herald is the primary source of news, sports and other information for Snohomish County, we haven’t had the resources to dedicate a reporter to the education beat for many years. We had hoped that our community reporters could pick up the slack, but it become apparent that coverage of such an important beat in a county with 15 public school districts — ranging from small and rural to large and urban — and dozens of private schools requires a dedicated reporter, not a piecemeal approach.
Because of our community’s need for more information about K-12 education, The Daily Herald was selected to participate in the Report for America Program. Report for America is a national service program that places emerging journalists in communities where there is a gap in reporting that the local newspaper can’t fill on its own.
Through the Report for America program, The Herald hired Mallory Gruben, who began covering the education beat in June. Since joining The Herald’s news team, Gruben has delivered stories we would not otherwise have been able to. In just a short time, she has reported on a new law requiring school districts to add mental health as a reason for an excused absence, the impact two failed levies will have on education in Marysville, the toll of the pandemic on students and staff shortages, and more.
Gruben is also encouraging conversations and connections. She’s out in our community talking with school district superintendents, school board members, educators, parents and students. She told me she passes out her business cards along with an invitation to have coffee and talk about education.
Mallory Gruben
As part of the Report for America program, Gruben must also commit to community service outside of her normal working hours. Her ideal volunteer project would be to help middle school students learn the basics of journalism and ignite a passion in them for community reporting.
In addition to providing local newspapers with the opportunity to hire emerging journalists, the Report for America program helps with funding. The program pays for a portion of a corps member’s salary and challenges the community to come up with the rest. Report for America believes communities should invest in the local journalism that benefits the community.
To meet Report for America’s challenge to invest in local coverage of education, our community together needs to raise nearly $62,000. That will fund Gruben’s work on the education beat through May 2023. The need for education reporting, however, will continue beyond that and it will require ongoing philanthropic funding.
When individuals, businesses and foundations step up to support community journalism, we all support the well-being of our community. With K-12 education back in full swing, now is the perfect time for all of us to contribute to the work that shines a light on education — its challenges, the people who are working on solutions, and ways we can all engage.
To make your donation now, visit heraldnet.com/education-project-fund.
Thank you.
We are grateful to everyone who took the time to join our first Community Conversation in August with Executive Editor Phil O’Connor. We appreciate your honest feedback about local journalism. If you’d like to join our next online Community Conversation from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Sept. 29, please register today at heraldnet.com/conversation-september.
Brenda Mann Harrison is the journalism development director for The Daily Herald. She writes “Local News Impact” to raise awareness of how community-supported journalism benefits Snohomish County. You can learn more – and donate today – at heraldnet.com/local-news-impact. You can contact Brenda at brenda.harrison@heraldnet.com or 425-339-3452. The Daily Herald maintains editorial control over content produced with resources from our journalism funds.
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