Raspberry Says He's Leaving Journalism to Focus on Education Project

By: E&P Staff In his final column Monday, William Raspberry said one reason he's retiring from The Washington Post is to concentrate more on the Baby Steps education program he launched in his hometown of Okolona, Miss.

"I need to raise money to sustain and expand Baby Steps, and there's no way for a journalist to do that without being involved in a conflict of interest," wrote Raspberry, who joined the Post in 1962, started doing a column in 1966, entered syndication with the Washington Post Writers Group in 1977, and won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1994.

Baby Steps seeks to increase the role of parents in their young children?s learning. Helping Raspberry in the education initiative are the Okolona Area Chamber of Commerce, the University of Mississippi, the Barksdale Reading Institute, churches, and other institutions and people.

Raspberry -- who also discussed his Post retirement in his Dec. 19 and Dec. 12 columns -- wrote Monday that education can help "save an endangered generation of children. I still believe in the magic of education, a belief instilled in me by my teacher-parents. It scares me that the parents of so many young children today don't believe in the magic."