The reinvention of Minneapolis schools coverage

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.”