National Education Writer's Association Names First Public Editor

By: E&P Staff Former Washington Post reporter Linda Perlstein has been named public editor of the National Education Writer?s Association (EWA), a new position designed to help newsrooms cover education issues.

As public editor, Perlstein will work with individual reporters to help them find sources and experts, and confer with their editors to coordinate their work with her own. She will also write a regular column about education coverage around the country.

Perlstein started work at the Post as a graphics editor before becoming a reporter. She left the Post to write two books, both about education issues, and since then has freelanced for many publications ranging from the Post and The Sun in Baltimore to salon.com.

EAW hopes the job will compensate for cuts in the newspaper industry that make comprehensive and quality education reporting more difficult. Budget woes and declining circulations have plagued newspapers, and the resulting staff and cost cuts have impacted education reporting teams.

"We listened to what reporters were telling us -- that not only have education staffs shrunk but in many cases reporters are working with editors who have no experience dealing with education issues,? Richard Whitmire, USA Today editorial writer and president of the EWA Board of Directors, said in a statement. ?We know the EWA Public Editor can lend a hand."

Whitmire told E&P today that many education reporters had informed him that they no longer had editors who knew anything about the topic. "That's where we came up with this idea: For reporters on their own, we provide a helping hand via phone or e-mail. For reporters lacking a knowledgeable editor, we give them one.

"Most interesting is how the foundations reacted when we approached them," he added. "Usually, they prefer to fund only one of their advocacy priorities (early childhood, high school reform, etc.). In this case, however, they 'got it' right away and decided to help out. I think it was a realization that newspaper reporters are the only independent eyes and ears out there trying to figure out what's going on in the schools."