Beth Fertig urges funding to train journalism teachers in public schools
Beth Fertig, Executive Director of Press Pass NYC, says student journalism builds critical thinking, communication, and global citizenship. She asks for funding to train teachers through advisor fellowships so schools can build newsrooms.
Hi.
So thank you so much.
It's great to be here.
I'm Beth Ferdig, Executive Director of Press Pass NYC, which is part of the Youth Journalism Coalition.
And before this job, I was a reporter for over 25 years at WNYC Public Radio, where I covered education and politics.
So I have been on the other side of this microphone a lot.
And I want to tell you how much I love this organization and why it's relevant here, because Press Pass trains teachers and students to build school newsrooms in public schools across the city.
We've worked with more than 40 middle and high schools since launching five years ago, including Bronx River High School, Queens Tech, and a few of the other schools that are out there rallying with you.
And student journalism, as you've heard, is one of the most powerful and overlooked tools the city has for building the skills at Portrait of a Graduate.
Three pillars in particular, critical thinking, effective communicating, and being a global citizen, are constantly practiced in student newsrooms.
I've watched this happen at our partner schools.
A Bronx student won a prestigious award for reporting on immigration enforcement in her neighborhood.
A student in East New York, Brooklyn, used real reporting to debunk a rumor about a school lockdown being caused by ICE.
It wasn't.
A student at a school in Queens told me interviewing people taught him the difference between writing news and opinion.
And we are very grateful for the continued investment in student journalism, but we just want to plead for training the teachers.
That requires its own type of funding because you can't ask an English or social studies teacher to start a news team without sufficient training.
Journalism is its own profession.
The students need to learn the difference between news and opinion, ethics and understanding, how to talk to sources.
And that's why a trained advisor to work with a student newsroom is so important.
Our advisor fellowship gives teachers 30 hours of professional development, a mentor, and a stipend for free in their first year with two more years of support.
So this is how to build the infrastructure for student journalism by training teachers, and that's how to get what we want for all of our graduates.
And we look forward to any collaboration.
Thank you.
Thank you.