Blaming Readers For Bad Education News

Is it readers' faults that education coverage skews negative?  The editor of the Greensboro Times News-Record seems to think so (Covering education). His explanations are the usual ones -- journalists look for unusual events, and like stories with a broad interest to readers who aren't parents.  But that's not all.  He blames readers for not remembering positive stories, and takes frighteningly little responsibility for newspapers creating negative and inaccurate perceptions of schools.  Which they do.  Because their editors most of them want to be covering something "more important." 

By the way -- how is your local paper doing?

Comments

[Marc Dean Millot]

The reason education stories tend in the negative direction is very simple. Even the best public school systems aren't doing the job required if Americans are to keep pace with the improving quality of life enjoyed by the Greatest Generation and their children. The vast bulk are mediocre, and the rest are a disgrace.

The result - most of the middle class are not as well off as their parents, and most of their children will not be as well off as them. Most of us don't need the statistics, we know this in our guts.

The world is catching up to us in skills and capacity, and competing with us for everything that makes an economy strong and society enjoyable. The only hope of regaining anything like the position we earned as a nation or individuals lies with a public education that is as far and above the rest of the world as it was then.

Today were are arguing over whether and where we are marginally better or worse than large numbers of students in China and India.

That's not where we need to be, and until we get serious about regaining the edge we've lost, the news about public education will be sour. School systems don't deserve all the blam - government, parents. political leaders, investors, unions - all of us have done our part, but they are the institution responsible for preparing our youth, and they haven't done the job the nation requires.