Newspapers have slashed education reporting in the San Francisco Bay Area: Two K-12 reporters (who also cover kids, families and breaking news) are all that’s left at the San Francisco Chronicle and the Bay Area Newspaper Group (San Jose Mercury News, East Bay Times and more), I write on The Grade. The much smaller Examiner has an education and community affairs reporter.
Reporting about reporting is new to me.
California has shifted education funding and control to local districts, EdSource’s John Fensterwald points out. Local control requires an informed public, which requires “eagle-eyed reporting on spending and decision-making on a local level,” he said.
What gets lost when there are so few people trying to cover so much news? “Local news,” said Sharon Noguchi, who works for BANG.
I worked with John and Sharon years ago on the Mercury News‘ editorial pages. We must have peaked at 11 or 12 edit-page staffers. It’s down to two.
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