From one of the new websites aimed at covering education came a comprehensive and well reported piece that put together the many challenges facing early childhood education in Pennsylvania, specifically Philadelphia. The Notebook describes itself as “an independent voice for parents, educators, students and friends of the Philadelphia public school system.”
The story by Dale Mezzacappa, a former longtime education reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, described the many obstacles to getting more young children into pre-kindergarten classes in the city and the state, along with providing a progress report that detailed many state developments.
Despite an increase in quality and access, Mezzacappa wrote, “early education options in the city remain a confusing hodgepodge. While spending for child care subsidies has gone up, less than half the eligible low-income families actually get them, and thousands are on waiting lists.”
The lengthy, well reported piece reminded EarlyStories of what is missing in education coverage, as beat reporters struggle in many cases to cover both multiple school districts and higher education at the same time. Too often, important developments and stories about what happens even before children enter a classroom are neglected.
Mezzacappa’s piece contained important information about an array of programs and services, described lengthy waiting lists for slots and detailed confusion and uncertainty that exists around early childhood education. She performed an important public service — one that is more needed than ever as newspapers cut back on education coverage.
Hechinger blogs
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at 12:22 pm
Our K-12 education reporter was just that and she struggled to cover all of the news in those grades. I started covering early education as part of a family beat, but it likely would have gone uncovered if I hadn’t had the autonomy to shape a newly-created beat. My newspaper, however, shut down in March.