The Baltimore Banner expands education coverage with Education Hub
The Baltimore Banner is launching the Education Hub, its first community-funded journalism initiative. According to a press release, the Education Hub will expand coverage of the most pressing issues in education, deepening conversations with students, parents, and educators, and providing a centralized online resource hub for Maryland’s education community.
“The Baltimore Banner’s Education Hub will significantly expand the scope of our education coverage, enabling us to serve as an essential resource for Maryland families. The Education Hub’s work will help communities across the state more accurately assess the strengths and weaknesses of local education systems,” said Baltimore Banner Editor in Chief Kimi Yoshino.
The release states the Education Hub seeks to answer the question: What does it take to give every Maryland child a high-quality education? The initiative will address this question with journalism that holds decision makers in the education system to account, highlights solutions to improve children’s lives, and fosters education equity across the state.
The newsroom education reporting team currently has two journalists dedicated to the education beat full-time and will soon expand to five reporters. With philanthropic funding from the Bainum Family Foundation, Maya Lora will start as The Banner’s inaugural early childhood education reporter, joining editor Rachel Mull and reporters Liz Bowie and Kristen Griffith. Jessica Calefati, an investigative reporter at The Baltimore Banner, will soon focus on what tools Maryland kids need to be successful in school, college and careers.
The launch of the Education Hub comes as The Banner celebrates its second anniversary. “We’ve had extraordinary success in our first two years, exceeding our own goals and becoming a trusted and indispensable source of news for the people of Baltimore and Greater Maryland,” said Bob Cohn, CEO of The Baltimore Banner. “Our expanded focus on education is part of the strategy to broaden our appeal to new audiences while serving our mission to inform, strengthen, and inspire Maryland communities.”
