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Top Stories on U.S. Congress

As House and Senate leaders met last week to negotiate the final provisions of President Barack Obama's stimulus plan, we turned our attention to the U.S. Congress as our featured topic. Debate over the bill dominated coverage. Our best news and analysis centered on the unraveling of the bipartisanship President Obama had hoped to achieve, as well as predictions of how the final bill would impact the economy.

The Council on Foreign Relations gave the big picture of the stimulus plan -- where the money will likely go and how it could affect the U.S. and world economies -- in a highly rated special report at the beginning of the week:

Majority Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives passed a stimulus bill favored by Obama on January 28, 2009, with a price tag of nearly $820 billion, and their counterparts in the Senate passed a slightly larger measure on February 10, 2009. Negotiations to reconcile the two versions must occur before Obama can sign the bill into law.

The package comes amidst a global wave of stimulus spending, and if it succeeds in pulling the U.S. economy from recession, economists say, the positive impact could be felt around the world. Yet experts also see a number of ways the plan could go wrong. Some encourage targeted, temporary spending measures and say lawmakers should take budgetary concerns into consideration. Doing too little to solve the financial crisis could prove calamitous, they say, but legislative overreach could also have serious consequences.

When the Senate approved an $838 billion version of the plan Feb. 10, McClatchy looked at the looming party-line battle over what should be cut in the final version. Their news report highlighted the bill's scant Republican support:

Since Republicans control only 178 of the House's 435 seats and 41 of the 100 Senate seats, they're likely to have little say in the compromise.

However, as Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky pointed out, "there are 219 Republicans in Congress and only three found the bill acceptable."

If those three don't like the final version, they could sink it in the Senate.

Members of both parties have escalated their partisan rhetoric. Obama complained last week that Republican initiatives too often are "rooted in the idea that tax cuts alone can solve all our problems, that government doesn't have a role to play, that half-measures and tinkering are somehow enough, that we can afford to ignore our most fundamental economic challenges "

Most Republicans, on the other hand, have become emboldened and united in their opposition, dismissing the stimulus bills as loaded with spending that would do little to spur the economy.

Mid-week, The Hill, an independent weekly that covers Congress, shed some light on the inner workings of the bill's negotiation. In a news story that touched on the personalities and tactics at play in the Capitol, The Hill reported that Rham Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, kept a high profile during the debate:

[I]f anyone's fingerprints are on the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus package being sorted out in Congress this week, they belong to Emanuel, the former Illinois House member who is now the White House chief of staff.

There he was on the morning before the House stimulus vote, bringing Blue Dogs back into the fold as he huddled with their leaders in House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's (D-Md.) hideaway off the House floor.

That was in addition to the unrequited courtship of Republican centrists by Emanuel, who was the No. 4 leader in the House before he resigned to become President Obama's top aide. ...

Emanuel's successful courtship of fiscally conservative Blue Dogs has been less publicized than the outreach to Republicans.

Blue Dogs were growing restless amid news reports of projects in the stimulus, such as the re-sodding of the National Mall, or that their demand to reinstate "statutory pay-go" wasn't in the bill.

The fiscally conservative Democrats might not have been able to defeat the bill, but a large chunk of Democrats defecting on the top priority of a new Democratic president would have heaped insult on the injury inflicted by the GOP's wall of opposition.

After the final version of the bill cleared both houses of Congress on Feb. 13, the Washington Post followed with a news analysis that examined how the plan's success or failure could be used for political purposes in the next round of elections:

President Obama's advisers are betting that the historic legislation he will sign tomorrow will bear fruit quickly, and they plan to do everything they can to highlight evidence of it creating the jobs he has promised. That public relations effort kicks off tomorrow as a two-day swing through the West begins.

But the Republican Party has made its own bet: that the stimulus package that Democrats rushed through Congress will have been deemed a failure by the time the 2010 elections arrive, leading voters to rebuke Obama and reward the GOP with much-needed victories.

Whichever side proves to be right, the sharp, partisan lines over the stimulus bill make it plain that both parties intend to exact a political cost over last week's votes. And their leaders are looking to history for inspiration as they consider how to maneuver in the weeks and months ahead.

Top Stories
Here's a sampling of the best Congressional news coverage from last week;

Democrats and Republicans line up to do battle over results of stimulus package
Washington Post
GOP seethes over Charlie Crist's stimulus-plan support
Miami Herald
Rahm's fingerprints all over package, tactics
The Hill
Immigration fight simmered during stimulus negotiations
Washington Independent
The U.S. economic stimulus plan
Council on Foreign Relations
For Senators, tax questions are taxing
The Politico

Top rated stories on U.S. Congress (full listing)
Top stories on U.S. Congress (full listing)

This week: Foreign Policy
Our featured topic this week is Foreign Policy. In the first hundred days of his administration, the world is keeping a close eye on how Barack Obama's foreign policy differs from that of his predecessor. Help us find news and opinion on the approach President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton take with America's allies and antagonists, on our Foreign Policy topic page.

Posted by Derek Hawkins on February 18, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Top Stories on Education

Education took center-stage last week, as we were joined by Ashoka, the global network of social entrepreneurs, in finding quality journalism on global literacy, early childhood development, digital learning, schooling and other related topics. Led by our stalwart hosts Dale Penn and Kristin Gorski, we came together to review more than 100 stories about education in this one-of-a-kind News Hunt.

As education reporting often takes a back seat to more dynamic topics in both mainstream and independent media, education stories relevant to a broad audience can be elusive. Perhaps a reflection of this, most of our top rated news stories covered issues at the state and local level, as opposed to the national level. Looking below the surface, however, many of these stories had implications beyond the scale on which they were reported.

In one example, 'Student's free speech case may lead to legislation', the Hartford Courant reported on the pending case of a Connecticut high school student who was barred from her student council for writing a blog post that school administrators deemed inappropriate. The paper used the case to examine the broader impact the outcome could have on students' free speech at the state and even federal level:

The significance of Doninger's case and other student Internet speech cases elsewhere in the country centers on a thorny question: Does the Internet fundamentally change how people communicate, making previous boundaries between on- and off-campus speech outdated, or does it simply amplify what they say?

In another highly rated news story, 'Finland's education system offers lessons for Dallas,' the Dallas Morning News combined the local with the international in reporting on attempts to reform Dallas schools based on the unique aspects of the Finnish model.

Educators from across the world have looked to Finland for ideas on improving public education. Dallas reformers are especially intrigued with how Finland gets positive results from all of its schools and nearly all of its students – an equality that has been a chronic problem in Texas since the days of racial segregation. Finland also intrigues with its success in math and science ...

Finland's battles to improve education offer ideas for success in Texas – and ideas for avoiding a decline in living standards for a poorly educated population.

In 'To close a school -- a decision rooted in data, but colored by nuance,' the New York Times vetted New York City's abrupt decision shut down an underperforming public school in the Bronx. The story shed light on how such a move affects the community around a school, wherever it may be:

The break-you-down, build-you-up strategy is meant to rattle the system — to warn struggling schools to change or be changed — and open the door for new school leaders and staffs to rehabilitate some of the lowest-performing student populations in the city.

But the decision to close a school is inevitably subjective, based on a mishmash of factors like performance on standardized tests, situations of violence, student demand for the school and whether the school seems capable of turning around. As such, the city inevitably earns the fury of educators, parents and students asking, 'Why our school?'

While most of our top news was rooted in state and local reporting, our top opinion tended to look at large-scale issues surrounding education. Our highest rated was an op-ed penned by President Obama, 'The action Americans need,' that appeared in the Washington Post. A call to support the economic stimulus plan currently being negotiated in Congress, he proposed upgrading 10,000 school facilities, training teachers in math and science, and making college more affordable.

In another important piece, technology writer, academic and NewsTrust advisor Dan Gillmor authored a well received opinion for PBS's MediaShift, 'Journalism education's broader, deeper mission,' in which he argued that journalism schools must not only instill in students the core principles of the trade, but keep pace with its evolving practices.

Journalism educators should be in the vanguard of an absolutely essential shift for society at large: helping our students, and people in our larger communities, to navigate and manage the myriad information streams of a media-saturated world.

We need to help them understand why they need to become activists as consumers -- by taking more responsibility for the quality of what they consume, in large part by becoming more critical thinkers. And they need to understand their emerging role as creators of media.

An opinion from McClatchy, 'Obama must examine No Child Left Behind,' called for a Congressional overhaul of George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind program and also drew a favorable rating.

We asked our hosts to comment on the discrepancy between the scope of coverage in our top news and opinion. Dale said that although he sought out education stories that were national in nature, he found few that weren't opinion. He offered this take on why this might be the case:

Education (with the exception of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Head Start, Pell Grants, tax credits, student loans and other Federal programs) is for the most part a function of local school boards, and the State governments. That's where the majority of the funding comes from and that's where the education journalists are stationed. Consequently, the news about what is happening in schools tends to end up as local or state level stories. The opinion pieces were generally related to, or in response to, the stimulus which is a national conversation.

The big national news last week was the stimulus, and while it had an education component that popped up here and there, the components of the stimulus are in such flux that the education piece pretty much got buried in the reporting. There was nothing concrete to report. Obama hasn't had a chance to tackle NCLB reform. The Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, hasn't gotten to issues of policy yet and is still talking in campaign speak - which is to be expected given the short time he has been in the position. So the dearth of high quality journalism on a national level also may have been caused by timing to some degree. The opinion stories listed are born from discussions about anticipated education reform under the stimulus and the new Administration.

Kristin agreed, and found value in the fact that many of our top education stories originated below the national level. She said:

I'm often drawn to local stories because I want real examples to learn from; theory only goes so far in the classroom. Local stories often looked at specifics of problems. As reviewers -- and as educators, parents, teachers and students -- we're interested in case studies, as successful ones could be models for use in other -- even our own -- venues. As for the national opinion pieces which primarily discussed national policy, they are sometimes confirming or enlightening, but are often not practical or useful in solving specific educational problems.

In rating quality stories, a well-written, solidly sourced and in-depth piece about local issues trumps a more general opinion piece about national policy. During the news hunt, I read many echo pieces in various sources which nearly repeated other opinions or editorials. While important in reaching different markets, they didn't always add much new to the debate, or inform.

Read the full text of Kristin's remarks about this News Hunt on her blog, Write Now is Good, and the full text of Dale's remarks on the News Trust Blog.

Here's a sampling of our top rated news and opinion on education:

News

Senior citizens help young children with reading -- and relationships
Edutopia
China's surge of college graduates finds white-collar work elusive
Christian Science Monitor
Finland's education system offers lessons for Dallas
Dallas Morning News
New Jersey issues annual school report cards
New York Times
Miami-Dade schools can yank book on Cuba
Miami Herald
The jobless go back to school and, they hope, work
Wall Street Journal
To close a school -- a decision rooted in data, but colored by nuance
New York Times
School study cites 'achievement gap'
Aurora Beacon News
Student's free speech case may lead to legislation
Hartford Courant
Houston dropout rate vexes outgoing schools chief
Houston Chronicle

Opinion

The action Americans need
Washington Post
Journalism education's broader, deeper mission
PBS
Throwing schools out the window
New York Times
Investing in our human infrastructure: The real wealth of our nation is in its people
Tikkun
Obama must examine No Child Left Behind
McClatchy
Grand experiment: A public editor for education
Columbia Journalism Review

Top rated stories on Education (full list)
Top stories from the Education News Hunt (full list)

Thanks to our partners at Ashoka and our hosts
This News Hunt was a tremendous success thanks to the collaboration and support from our partners at Ashoka. It's a pleasure to have worked alongside such a remarkable group of innovators -- and we look forward to teaming up again in the future. Thanks to Keith Hammond and Stephanie Savell from the News and Knowledge Group, and all the wonderful members of the Ashoka team, including Katherine Hutt, Erika Bowman, Tom Dawkins, Allison Frieze, Lennon Flowers, Salem Paulos, and Beverly Schwartz.

We're grateful to Ashoka for electing NewsTrust's founder and executive director Fabrice Florin an Ashoka fellow in 2008.

We'd also like to extend an enormous thanks to Dale and Kristin for their exemplary leadership in our education News Hunt. They burrowed deep into the week's education coverage, bringing us an impressive selection of under-the-radar stories from many sources mainstream and independent. Their efforts are an inspiration to all of us.

This week: U.S. Congress
Our featured topic this week is U.S. Congress. With job losses mounting, the Obama Administration is under pressure to push an economic stimulus plan through Congress in short order. But Congressional Democrats are facing strong opposition from Republicans concerned about excessive government spending and waste. Help us find journalism that illuminates the complexities of the stimulus plan, and the politics that are shaping how the money will be spent, on our U.S. Congress topic page.

-- By Derek Hawkins, with Fabrice Florin and Kaizar Campwala

Posted by Derek Hawkins on February 11, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

From our host, Dale Penn

We asked Dale Penn and Kristin Gorski, hosts of our education News Hunt, for their input on certain trends in coverage we noticed in last week's top education stories, as well as their overall impressions of this project. Below is the full text of Dale's remarks; Kristin's can be found on her personal blog, Write Now is Good.

It was a pleasure co-hosting this topic with Kristin. I do feel I have gained a much keener insight into the issues in education than I expected at the outset. You were a great help submitting stories and reviewing religiously all week.

I consciously looked for education stories that were national in nature, and (as you point out) they all seemed to be opinion (or NYT or WAPO). I believe the reason is this: Education (with the exception of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Head Start, Pell Grants, tax credits, student loans and other Federal programs) is for the most part a function of local school boards, and the State governments. That's where the majority of the funding comes from and that's where the education journalists are stationed. Consequently, the news about what is happening in schools tends to end up as local or state level stories. The opinion pieces were generally related to, or in response to, the stimulus which is a national conversation.

I sorted through literally hundreds of local school stories that were merely announcements, award recognitions or stories that had no implications beyond the local level to come up with the ones I submitted.

I believe you will find that the news stories listed below actually do have national implications, even if they don't jump out at first glance. For instance the first story on Finland's education system ('Finland's education system offers lessons for Dallas') deals with the a national approach to education (Finland's) vs. a local approach to education (Dallas/U.S.). The story begins with the sentence: "HELSINKI, Finland – This is the land where no child is left behind" (as opposed to the U.S. where we have a national law that aims for NCLB reality but misses the mark).

The story on Miami-Dade schools ('Miami-Dade schools can yank book on Cuba') is really a story about first amendment rights. This book banning case is still working its way through the courts and could well end up before the US Supreme Court to determine if local school boards have the right to ban books based on community sensitivity to a subject (i.e., today's Cuba is shown in a positive light in a child's book and this is counter to everything many (most?) Miami Cubans believe and have taught their children about the evils of Cuba under Castro.)

Another example is the story from the Aurora Beacon News ('School study cites 'achievement gap''). As I mentioned in my review, this story echos a story from NYC. Demographics impact the funding for local school districts. If a school is in an impoverished area, with a high immigrant population, standardized test scores will be impacted and funding will decline, ultimately leading to possible closure of the schools. This is not in the strictest sense a local/state issue, even though the story sites a local/state example ...

The big national news last week was the stimulus, and while it had an education component that popped up here and there, the components of the stimulus are in such flux that the education piece pretty much got buried in the reporting. There was nothing concrete to report. Obama hasn't had a chance to tackle NCLB reform. The Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, hasn't gotten to issues of policy yet and is still talking in campaign speak - which is to be expected given the short time he has been in the position. So the dearth of high quality journalism on a national level also may have been caused by timing to some degree. The opinion stories listed are born from discussions about anticipated education reform under the stimulus and the new Administration.

I took to heart the focus of this week's collaboration with Ashoka and looked for stories about early childhood to lifelong learning, global literacy and digital learning. These were difficult stories to find. Stories of women being trained in India, and fathers being coached in India to support their daughters' desire to learn were micro-stories pointing to a much larger and often not emphasized macro regional problem. Hopefully these stories, if read, provided a sense of the dire straights global literacy is in in developing countries. We need to continue to develop media sources for these topics.

Posted by Derek Hawkins on February 11, 2009 | Permalink | Comments (0)

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