In the aftermath of a widespread shift among educators, parents, and immigrants, education journalists need to be more curious than furious.
By Alexander Russo
The Nov. 5 elections saw large numbers of voters shifting to Trump not just because of crazy things they read online but also because of what they saw and experienced in real life.
The shift seemed to come as a surprise to many Democrats and their supporters — and to news outlets, too.
Many news outlets had missed or downplayed the distress and growing disenchantment in working-class communities.
In return, many Americans had lost trust in traditional journalism and turned to alternative sources.
Curious about how this happened — and what to do next — I’ve spent much of the past two weeks trying to understand the election results and the media’s role.
My takeaway is that journalism must include unfamiliar perspectives and depict a broader set of experiences.
In short, reporters need to be more curious than furious.
Some ideas:
GET TO KNOW TRUMP-VOTING EDUCATORS
In 2017, 29 percent of educators responding to EdWeek said they voted for Trump. Five years later, that number had increased to 38 percent.
While the overall level of support for Trump among educators was only one point higher in 2024, support among younger educators reached 49 percent.
These folks aren’t necessarily Trump supporters. But large numbers appear to have voted for him.
Their existence has been acknowledged here and there over the past few weeks, in the New York Times and The Guardian.
Your journalism will be so much better if you understand them — and share it with your readers.
WRITE SMART ABOUT THE EDSEC NOMINEE
If you’re a national education reporter or if potential candidates come from your state or city, your next job is probably going to be writing about the Trump nominee for education secretary. He or she will probably not fit the conventional model, and you will be encouraged by many of your readers and sources to write about how unqualified and abhorrent that person is.
By all means focus on his or her qualifications. But instead of participating in a predictable media pile-on, surprise and impress us all by calling out unfair mischaracterizations of the nominee (as former NPR reporter Anya Kamenetz did when she explored whether sexism played a role in the relentlessly negative DeVos coverage), or do what This American Life did with its segment on DeVos (focusing on her little-reported years of volunteering at a public school).
INCLUDE TRUMP-VOTING PARENTS
As with educators, parents also shifted right in 2024 — without anyone seeming to notice.
According to exit poll results I first saw via the Christian Post, overall support for Trump among parents of children younger than 18 surged to 53 percent, compared to 44 for Harris. Four years previously, only 46 percent of school-age parents backed Trump.
At a whopping 60 percent, dads were six points more likely to support Trump than men without children.
Education reporters and editors need to do a much better job learning about the shift rightward they represent.
See MarketWatch for more.
GET YOURSELF NEW “MAGA“ “SOURCES
If your best sources don’t include folks who worked in or with the previous Trump administration — or any current MAGA-supporting Republicans who now run things at the state and local levels — they’re probably not the best people to be talking to for information about what’s happening — in the transition, the statehouse, or anywhere else. “Those who know won’t say and those of us who are speculating don’t know,” admits AEI’s Rick Hess, whom many journalists still call.
Ask your “old” Republican sources like Hess who you should talk to. Go to a few hearings and wait outside the staff door for people coming in and out. Cold call some new names and see if they’ll talk to you. You readers will appreciate it, and your old sources will understand.
GET TO KNOW SOME TRUMP-SUPPORTING IMMIGRANTS (LATINO OR OTHERWISE)
Substantial percentages of Latino Americans said that they were going to vote for Trump, though the trend varied widely by place of origin. I was among those who were surprised. But I shouldn’t have been, not only because of history but also because of the handful of journalists who’ve covered these tensions with nuance rather than simplistic alarm.
Not sure where to start? Read this Brookings’ recent brief, Immigrant voters and the 2024 presidential election or check out this recent New York magazine article on Trump-voting immigrants in New York City. Follow the Boston Globe’s Giulia McDonnell del Nieto, the AP’s Bianca Vazques Toness, and other journalists whose coverage doesn’t ignore the resentments of previous immigrants or vilify them for being concerned.
BE WHERE THE REAL PEOPLE ARE
Now is the time for journalists to lean into uncomfortable conversations and stay present in situations that aren’t entirely comfortable.
Feel free to join BlueSky, but stay on Twitter. Get yourself back on Facebook. Try getting your news from YouTube, which is what more and more people already do. Reddit can be eye-opening.
That doesn’t mean tolerating hate or wasting time with bad actors. “Block” and “Report” are your friends. But it does mean spending time around people who believe different things than from you.
Are they mistaken, or are you? Maybe it’s a little bit of both. If they’re widespread, even the most misguided views need to be understood.
HOLD JOURNALISM ACCOUNTABLE
If and when something stupid happens at your newsroom — whether it’s a publisher killing an editorial endorsement (as happened at the LA Times and Washington Post) or a more pervasive problem with how stories are chosen and reported (as is apparently happening at The Baltimore Sun) — you need to take action.
Speak up, and let your readers know about it. Organize some sort of work stoppage. Encourage readers to hold the paper accountable, and — so that people know what you stand for and take you seriously — do the same yourself.
Resign if necessary. “How stories are written and which stories are written matters,” wrote former Baltimore Sun reporter Darcy Costello in her resignation announcement.
FOLLOW YOUR GUT
If we’re being real, we’ve long had a sense that more parents and educators were becoming alienated from schools and the Democratic party.
In the aftermath of the first Trump victory, the Huffington Post and USA Today reported on Trump-supporting teachers.
Five years ago, there were warning signs that progressivism was alienating even Democratic-leaning Brooklyn parents, including a much-discussed Atlantic article.
And it’s no real secret that masking, vaccination, and school closing decisions further divided parents and educators.
If more journalists had probed more this shift more deeply and given more consistent, curious attention to these developments over time, then perhaps election day would have been less of a surprise.
Let’s not make that mistake again!
Previously from The Grade
“Teachers For Trump” & Other Subgroups
A year full of terrible, horrible, no good, VERY bad media coverage of Betsy DeVos
Make Education Reporting Great Again (2016)
