The reinvention of Minneapolis schools coverage

Veteran education reporter Beth Hawkins describes the emergence of a few bylines and outlets taking a different approach to Minneapolis education news, and reflects on flaws in her own efforts.

By Alexander Russo

There are three major school districts in the Minneapolis metropolitan region, together serving more than 100,000 students: Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), St. Paul, and Anoka-Hennepin. Like many other places, the region has seen a sharp decline in education coverage over the past few years.

Journalist Beth Hawkins has watched it all. A parent and veteran education reporter, she’s worked at the MinnPost and now The 74.

In the following interview, Hawkins describes the now-familiar decrease in education coverage and reveals some regrettable aspects to her own work as a MinnPost reporter. But Hawkins also points to a handful of people doing good work, and a few emerging new outlets taking on the education topic in new, different ways.

“They really center the voices of parents and students,” says Hawkins about the newcomers. “They include the official sources that my generation was trained to be so reliant on… but they don’t crowd out the other voices.”

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

What’s the current reopening status in Minneapolis?

Hawkins: Right now, the district is mired in the same reopening chaos that’s plaguing the rest of the country. The Minneapolis Federation of Teachers just filed a labor complaint with a state agency that oversees those things here, complaining that the district did not bargain reopening conditions with them. Minneapolis and St. Paul have just reopened, while most of the suburbs did some time ago. 

How well has the school shutdown and reopening story been covered?

Hawkins: My impression is that our legacy outlets have taken a bite of the apple on each topic. By that, I mean, they’ve each done a vaccine story. Maybe they’ve done a “who wants to go back and who doesn’t” story. It feels to me like they’re dipping in rather than digging in. They understand that this is a concern to people in the community. But there’s nothing really systemic. 

Why has there been so little coverage of such a dramatic story?

Hawkins: As of Dec. 31, we lost the last person who covered Minneapolis Public Schools in an intentional and more or less full-time way. Nate Gotlieb was lost when the neighborhood newspaper, Southwest Journal, closed at the end of the year. So, there is now no reporter assigned to cover the district. The Star Tribune apparently posted a schools reporting job; if it’s been filled, I haven’t heard. This is crazy-problematic, for so many reasons. 

How does it feel to have such a big story passing by?

Hawkins: We’re living in a moment where, between the pandemic and George Floyd, affluent white people are newly aware of the disparities here and of their historical roots. I just grieve for the fact that this moment is going by, education is a huge part of that storyline, and no one is taking advantage of that open window.

I just grieve for the fact that this moment is going by, education is a huge part of that storyline, and no one is taking advantage of that open window.

How much has coverage of Minneapolis schools changed since you started covering the beat?

Hawkins: When I wrote my first education pieces around the turn of the millennium, there was a very robust education reporting field here. There were several people at the Pioneer Press, probably a half a dozen people at the Star Tribune. It was not unusual at that point to attend a school board meeting and find yourself in a room with four or five other reporters. That’s changed dramatically. 

Where have all the Minneapolis-focused education reporters gone?

Hawkins: Faiza Mahamud, the Star Tribune’s last dedicated MPS reporter, was on leave for quite a while. A number of people were pinch-hitting for her. One of them actually called me for help a few months back. But there’s been a terrible vacuum.

Minnesota Public Radio, as far as I can tell, now has one full-time education reporter, Elizabeth Shockman, who is relatively new and focused on statewide issues.

It seems like our legacy media – the Pioneer Press, MPR and the Star Tribune – consider education a tooth-cutting beat.

MinnPost’s education reporter, Erin Heinrichs, is part time at the moment. American Public Media mostly produces national stories. 

What needs to happen/needs to change to make the existing coverage at the remaining outlets more robust?

Hawkins: I think part of the problem with the Star Tribune is that a) they can’t keep their young reporters of color for very long, b) white editors whose kids go to majority white schools are said to be very resistant to some storylines and uninterested in diversifying sources, and c) — GEEZ it pains me to say this —  but MaryJo Webster, the data reporting czar who a couple of years ago would work with said young reporters to do investigative stuff, doesn’t seem to get education.

What makes Minneapolis particularly interesting or different (or challenging) to cover as an education reporter?

Hawkins: Blame Garrison Keillor! For almost 35 years, he quipped often that all the kids in Lake Wobegon were above average, and boy have we forgotten that’s a joke. What is both different and challenging is the degree to which affluent Minneapolis residents imagine that The Minnesota Miracle — a landmark school funding reform from 1971 — means that we have a nation-leading K-12 landscape, when in fact we have nation-leading disparities for children of color and Native American students. I often hear people say, “But those gaps are only so big because our white kids are so high-achieving.”

For almost 35 years, NPR host Garrison Keillor quipped often that all the kids in Lake Wobegon were above average, and boy have we forgotten that’s a joke.

Are there any bright spots when it comes to local education coverage?

Hawkins: The Minnesota Reformer has done a couple of education stories that have had some sharp edges and been a little bit more in-depth. They have a reporter named Rilyn Eischens who does good work, but, again, not in a focused way.

We also have a news outlet here called Sahan Journal that was founded by a couple of Somali journalists and has since expanded to be news from the perspective of immigrant communities. I think they’re doing the best education journalism here at the moment. They have a very good Report for America fellow, Becky Dernbach.

One of our largest news outlets is Minnesota Public Radio. They have a producer, Megan Burks, who covered education at KPBS in San Diego, who I think has prodded them a little. And MPR has a reporter named Riham Feshir who has done some good education reporting as it intersects with equity, but I don’t think it’s her beat. 

What’s different about the coverage from these newer outlets like the Reformer and the Sahan Journal?

Hawkins: It’s the way those stories are framed. They really center the voices of parents and students. They include the official sources that my generation was trained to be so reliant on in a fair and complete way, but they don’t crowd out the other voices.

The Sahan Journal’s coverage is much more student and family-centric than our legacy media. For example, here is their reopening story: Should you send your kids back to the classroom? Read this COVID-19 FAQ first. The Star Tribune’s coverage is much more focused on the conflict between the union and district: Minneapolis, St. Paul teachers unions oppose school reopening plans – StarTribune.com.

There are also some new/non-ed folks doing interesting work, albeit not as a beat and not focused. Angela Davis, the Black host of Minnesota Public Radio’s morning news talk show, takes on education from time to time and when she does it’s terrific. She’ll have two or three people on and really tear into something that nobody else is covering.

They really center the voices of parents and students. They include the official sources that my generation was trained to be so reliant on in a fair and complete way, but they don’t crowd out the other voices.

What effect does the lack of abundant local education coverage have?

 Hawkins: There are signs that our education organizations are becoming less and less interested in talking to their constituencies through the media. I think they’re less convinced that it’s the public’s business how they make decisions, how they spend money, how they make decisions about everything from curriculum to COVID safety. And that, I believe, is a function of declining media coverage. The things that start to happen when people aren’t being watched or asked questions can get bad pretty quickly.

What stories do you wish you’d gotten to more often when you were focused on local education news, or wish you’d covered differently than you did?

Hawkins: I wish I had checked back in regularly on progress made — or not — on the parades of strategic plans, marquee initiatives, bold prescriptions and so forth. The few times I did it, it was fruitful and the resulting stories very well read.

And this 2014 story represents an abject failure of mine, where I accepted the narrative that Minnesota does better because its white students do so well and failed utterly to look under the hood. I outlined the state commissioner of education’s case that multiple streams of data showed achievement gaps closing. I — gulp — called illusory gains “solid.” After it ran, I heard from the entire Who’s Who of serious K-12 academic and policy researchers and had more than one sit-down designed to help me understand where I went wrong. It was humiliating, but very instructional.

Previously from The Grade:

How the SF Chronicle’s Jill Tucker tackles the uncertainty & fear surrounding the reopening debate

Education and race: 9 journalists reflect 

Take it from me (Denise-Marie Ordway, former Orlando Sentinel)

Exit interview: A star reporter explains why she left journalism — and ways to fix education news

Covering communities that are not your own (Lee Romney, KALW)