Writes of passage: More NYC high schools need student newspapers
New research reveals that just 27% of New York City’s public high schools have student newspapers. You don’t have to be a reporter or editorial writer or former student journalist to be very troubled by this fact.
The overall numbers are worrisome, the demographic breakdown even more so. Baruch College Prof. Geanne Belton and her team surveyed all the district-run high schools they could over the course of a year and got answers from 439. While 36 of the 50 high schools with the lowest poverty rates had newspapers, just three of the 50 high schools with the highest poverty rates did. (Yes, this counts papers that are only online, not in print.) In the Bronx, just 14.5% of high schools had papers, and in Brooklyn, 18.7%. Manhattan (31%), Queens (47%) and Staten Island (50%) were better, but still not good enough.
Guilty as charged: We have a strong rooting interest in the durability of journalism as a craft. We want a future in which smart people from a range of backgrounds ask tough questions, observing their community and the wider world with a skeptical eye and holding both public- and private-sector leaders to account. The medium where that happens — whether it’s in print, on the internet, on the radio or on television — is immaterial.
But even if teenagers never go on to see their byline atop a published story, school newspapers imbue real skills: gathering information, checking sources, writing clearly. Those capabilities are especially vital to our civic health now, when baseless conspiracies that feed on ignorance spread at the speed of light.
There’s another reason a paucity of school papers, especially on campuses serving the most disadvantaged kids, is a profound problem. Kids see things that adults don’t, telling stories — good, bad and otherwise — that might never otherwise bubble up.
The nonprofit Press Pass NYC helps start school papers. All it takes is a few computers, a dedicated adviser and some kids willing to stretch themselves. Principals, teachers, parents, students: Please give it a try.
