Chalkbeat: Local and State Coverage of Educational News

<p>Bob Maxfield and Suzanne Klein continue their conversation on the impact of the pandemic, what has happened to schools, and how schools could improve going forward with their guest Lori Higgins, the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Detroit. Prior to joining Chalkbeat, she was an education writer for the Detroit Free Press from 2000 to 2018.  She also served as an education writer and the assistant metro editor for the Green Bay Press-Gazette, in Wisconsin.  </p><p><strong>What is Chalkbeat?</strong>   https://www.chalkbeat.org/</p><p>Chalkbeat is a national nonprofit news organization with bureaus in eight cities, including Detroit, committed to covering the efforts to improve schools for all children.  The impact of education on children is evident at the local community level.  According to Lori Higgins, “There is very little reporting about what's happening at the local school level, or the local district level. At Chalkbeat we want to fill in those gaps that exist in news coverage. It is just so important that we show editors and publishers that this is a very important topic. When it's not covered, it's just not good for our communities.”</p><p>“We also highlight education reporting all over the state so it gives our readers a chance to see the issues beyond metro Detroit that are pretty common to what they're experiencing, or they may find that there's some unique thing that some district in Grand Rapids or somewhere else in the state is doing. So, there is a link at the bottom of our web page where you can sign up for our newsletter.”  </p><p><strong>Chalkbeat’s Mission</strong></p><p>“We are very much driven by this idea that every child deserves a quality education.  We are all about our mission, which is to write about the inequities in education… As journalists we’re taught to always be objective but pushing for this is just so vital; pushing forward, not in an advocacy way but in an educational way: highlighting the inequities, highlighting the solutions, highlighting what's being done to address them. W