EDITOR’S NOTE: Help fund our year-long deep dive into local education
The metric is glaring: 7 out of 10 students in the Salem-Keizer School District can’t read at their grade level. This and other data prove numbing for most people.
Salem Reporter aims to change that.
We are launching a new education reporting beat this summer. Report for America, a national nonprofit, is matching the Salem Reporter with a new reporter for our newsroom. The key question to that will guide the work of our new reporter: Why has student performance declined even as more money is put into the local school system?
Getting the answer will take a deep dive into understanding student testing, classroom teaching models, and what success should look like. This will give readers like you the most in-depth reporting on school money possible. We’ll track where the money comes from, where it goes – and what taxpayers and the community get in the bargain.
As a result, we’ll deliver investigative and enterprise stories, cover breaking news and generate insightful features. Our aim is to document the trends in student performance – and the opportunities for progress. We will provide revealing and solutions-oriented reporting.
This kind of reporting does not happen on its own. It requires time, expertise and sustained financial support from the very community we serve.
DONATE: Salem Reporter News Fund
While Report for America is covering a portion of the cost, that funding only works if Salem steps forward to meet the match. We must raise $40,000 by July 1 to bring this reporter into our newsroom through our News Fund.
That means this work depends on local support. It depends on parents who want clearer answers. On taxpayers who want transparency. On educators and local institutions who believe informed debate makes schools stronger. And on readers who understand that accountability journalism is a public good.
Your tax-deductible contribution of any amount directly funds the salary, benefits and reporting costs for this education beat. To donate, click here: Salem Reporter News Fund.
This matters because taxpayers, parents and educators need facts. With your help, we’ll deliver them. If you have any questions about this effort, reach out to me directly.
Please: Join us in this effort.
–Les Zaitz, editor, Salem Reporter
Email: [email protected]
Les Zaitz is editor and owner of Salem Reporter. He co-founded the news organization in 2018. He has been a journalist in Oregon for more than 50 years in both daily and community newspapers and digital news services. He is nationally recognized for his commitment to local journalism.
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A factor that must be acknowledged is the parents of these kids struggling to read are struggling theirselves as costs have gone through the roof, and parents are having to work more and more. They no longer have time to read bedtime stories. This is not only a education problem it is a society problem. Fixing the education problem will take fixing the society problem.