The State of Journalism in Illinois

This week one of Chicago Tribune's front page news stories was about the state of journalism in Illinois.  Vikki Ortiz Healy interviewed journalism teachers and stakeholders throughout the state to find out the status of newspapers in Illinois high schools.  She mentioned several programs that had been shut down because of money and cited an increase in pressure to increase test scores as another cause.  She did mention a Chicago high school's amazing ability to get millionaire magazine publisher Hugh Hefner to fund his childhood community's high school newspaper.  Overall she accurately portrayed that state of journalism in high school: declining.  Despite having started the entire journalism program at my school 5 years ago, I agree with her prognosis.  Even at my own school, I often wonder who is really reading The Phoenix Chronicle?  Do kids only read it because I make them?  If it disappeared tomorrow, would they even care?  These are troubling questions to answer when I have spent so much time and effort building what I consider a solid program that was meant to level the playing field between schools with money and ours.   A large reason I created the program was because I couldn't imagine a school without a yearbook or newspaper.  It just felt like another injustice.  Another normal high school experience that students without money miss out on. Because let's be honest it all comes down to money.  The best journalism programs in the state are at schools with money.  Why do programs get cut? Money.  Well that and good newspapers make the powers that be uncomfortable - no one wants a watchdog journalist on their tail, making sure they do what they say above ground. It's just sad that money dictates what our students learn or don't learn, what they experience or what they miss out on and what opportunities they have or don't.  That's why we have to keep fighting for our programs. And more importantly we have to encourage our kids to keep fighting.