‘We wasted a lot of time:’ A veteran reporter reflects

Providence Journal reporter Linda Borg grades herself critically for her coverage of the state takeover, pandemic shutdown, and schools reopening.

By Colleen Connolly and Alexander Russo

School district takeovers. Lawsuits. Recalls. Sudden resignations. Providence Journal reporter Linda Borg has seen and done it all.

She’s been at the paper for 35 years, the last 15 of which she’s covered K-12 education.

But nothing could have prepared her for the pandemic, during which the vast majority of Democratic-controlled school districts closed in-person learning and — with the exception of Providence —kept them closed for prolonged periods.

“I think I focused more on the challenges rather than the pluses,” Borg told us about her pandemic coverage. “We wasted a lot of time on the latest school to close, how superintendents felt unsupported, and how Providence was screwing up online learning.”

We wasted a lot of time on the latest school to close, how superintendents felt unsupported, and how Providence was screwing up online learning.

The following interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

What are the big education stories for your coverage area?

LB: Probably the biggest one is the takeover, which is now in its fourth year. Schools Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green has become kind of a punching bag for the Providence Teachers Union.

The other big issue has been COVID. We were one of the first states to really reopen, at least in a hybrid fashion.

What was it like to cover such a big story as the takeover? Were there any big or unexpected stories that came out of it?

LB: Well, at first, all of us jumped on the bandwagon that the system was failing. We believed in the Johns Hopkins University report and frankly, I felt guilty for not doing a better job of exposing the district’s flaws.

The unexpected story was how divided parents were about the takeover. A parent group with close ties to the commissioner thinks it is going well; other more informal community groups are not happy.

The other surprise is how quickly support for the takeover soured. After the takeover happened, I sensed a shift. Teachers felt blamed for all of the system’s woes. Cracks appeared in the narrative.

Then, I started reporting on efforts to make the takeover look good: kids were not allowed to flunk; a scripted curriculum left little room for innovation.

The commissioner could not get a contract passed because the union had had it. At one point, Infante-Green accused the union of posting a racist comment about her. In the end, the governor’s staff took it over and passed a very weak contract with no real changes. 

Can you tell us more about the actual effects of the takeover?

LB: During the previous two superintendents, there was a collaboration between teachers and the administration. Although progress was slow, teachers felt empowered. The superintendents were readily available, talked about the work, tried new ideas, but it was never allowed to take hold. The then-mayor of Providence drove both leaders out.

Then, Governor Raimondo set the stage for a takeover with the Hopkins report, which was largely anecdotal.

Now, I have never seen such a demoralized staff: teachers are leaving in droves for other districts, there is constant churn at the top and an emasculated school board leaves little in the way of accountability.

What do you wish you and other reporters had done earlier on, when the takeover was first being proposed?

LB: I wish we had asked harder questions about the Hopkins report and the specific goals that were being set.

What do you hope to do this new school year to help readers understand the takeover that you haven’t been able to get to in the past?

LB: Reach out to families, the unheard voices in the school district.

I wish we had asked harder questions about the Hopkins report and the specific goals that were being set.

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What do you make of the claim that education reporters were guilty of overplaying the risks of reopening during the pandemic, and downplaying success?

LB: I think what I got caught up in during certainly the first year of COVID is we did that dance around, ‘oh my God, this college has an outbreak and now they’re closing down the campus.’ I think I got caught up in the outbreaks and how many teachers are affected. So I think I probably overplayed the dangers.

Part of that was that we had a pretty significant anti-mask movement. So there were lawsuits. And also I  think I, too, may have fallen into that category of overplaying the risks because those were the people I heard from by and large. The commissioner tried to sell the reopening, but I’m not sure she really convinced critics that schools were safe.

So I think I erred on the side of ‘the ceiling is falling down’ — that it was worse than it was.

When did you start to change your view or how you were reporting on the school system’s pandemic response?

LB: I’m not really sure I changed my view until COVID began to dissipate. So early through that first year of reopening, I think I probably covered more of the hiccups than the pluses.

Also, in Providence, because the union tweets almost every day about something bad and because they were more available than the commissioner, I think I probably wrote a lot about how things were not working in Providence: teachers having to bring parts of other classes into their room, not enough special ed teachers, not enough MLA teachers.

I think I focused more on the challenges rather than the pluses, and I’m not sure I ever recovered from that.

Then the test scores were so gloomy, they were utterly horrible last year across the state and that’s no fault of the commissioner. That’s just a year of learning loss.

I don’t think I did a good job of saying, ‘oh, we reopened and it kind of worked.’ I didn’t really write about that, to be honest.

I think I focused more on the challenges rather than the pluses, and I’m not sure I ever recovered from that.

Going back in time, would you do anything differently?

LB: We have 66 school districts, including charters, in Rhode Island. I would’ve needed a lot more bandwidth to see where it was working. I think I did write about one charter school that was doing a really nice job of doing outreach to parents, keeping them informed.

Part of the problem is that a lot of the communication and messaging from the districts caught parents unaware because it was such a changing environment. I tended to hear more from the naysayers and I guess I never really reevaluated because then I was on to the next big thing.

I focused so much on Providence because it’s so dysfunctional and really did have a difficult time with their hybrid platform.

What kind of a grade would you give yourself and other local reporters for covering the effects of the pandemic response on kids and schools?

LB: A C-plus. We wasted a lot of time on the latest school to close, how superintendents felt unsupported, and how Providence was screwing up online learning.

Do you think it would be different if you had another person, or even a team of education reporters?

LB: Yeah, it probably would’ve made a huge difference because they could’ve gone into some of the suburban communities where there was more success. But then the problem was when I would call superintendents to say, how’s it going, there were always the same six that called me back. They would tell me the commissioner’s doing a poor job. I didn’t hear from all the safe ones. So a team would’ve helped. I felt like for two years I was just moving from one crisis to the next. I wasn’t really doing a lot of reflective stuff and I was expected to produce because there’s so few of us. I was on page one like three times a week.

What else should education reporters and readers know about your experience and your efforts?

LB: Access to schools remains a big obstacle

My biggest ongoing challenge is that everybody’s afraid to talk.

It’s a bad situation. No one wants to burn bridges because it’s such a tiny state.

What can you and other reporters do — what workarounds or alternative strategies are there — when nobody wants to talk and the school system won’t let you see for yourself?

LB: Good question. I have good contacts with the union, but that’s one sided. Again, reach out to families, but the challenge is I don’t speak Spanish.

Related from The Grade

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How the NYT’s Susan Dominus reported on Providence schools without going into classrooms