The Kansas Department of Education (KSDE) has announced that by 2012, Career and Technical Education (CTE) funding will be cut for high school journalism classes. Photo Illustration by Kellen Jenkins & Jon Coffey.

The Kansas Department of Education (KSDE) has announced that by 2012, Career and Technical Education (CTE) funding will be cut for high school journalism classes, and VE-2 funding will be limited to Information Technology, Web and Digital Communications programs.

According to Laurie Folsom, a member of the KSPA’S ad hoc CTE action committee and Lawrence Free State adviser, CTE funding helps pay for the technology used to create high school journalism publications. Additionally, the KSDE said VE-2 funding supplements high-cost, low-enrollment vocational education programs that lead to occupational-specific programs. The emphasis is on technical skills needed for employment and related to a specific occupation.

“Design programs such as InDesign are expensive, as well as equipment like digital cameras; both of which are somewhat essential in teaching high school students about the field of journalism,” said Anna Altwies, a senior Secondary English and Journalism Education major.

In order to compensate, “individual high schools that depend on CTE funding will have to decide if they can afford to continue offering journalism courses. In this economy, high schools are already faced with a lot of financial decisions in terms of what to keep and what to cut. Hopefully, Kansas high schools will be able to find a way to keep journalism programs in our schools,” said 2010 journalism BSE graduate Mallory Raugewitz, former Editor-in-Chief of The Bulletin.

Although CTE funding is seen as an integral part to journalism programs, Altwies and others in the field do not believe that the programs will die altogether.

Jeff Browne, Executive Director of the Kansas Scholastic Press Association (KSPA), said, “The cuts are bad for smaller schools and districts. Most large districts will have difficulties (surviving) without the funding, but they will probably stay.”

Additionally, Browne said that students will have to “work behind the curve” in acquiring new software and other equipment.

According to Kathy Martin, District 6 representative, the KSDE’s decision to cut CTE funding and limit VE-2 funding for high school journalism results from the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006.

“Under this legislation, states are required to support and fund programs that lead to high-demand, high-skill and/or high-wage career. We have (also) focused on courses and programs that prepare Kansas students to be both career and college-ready by the time they finish high school,” Martin said.

A survey by Jim McCrossen, KSPA president, found that both parents and students agree that journalism and yearbook classes help develop the “10 unifying themes” of today’s college-ready learner.

“These classes use skills such as creativity, critical thinking and collaboration… while other courses offered in high school may teach these skills, it is argued that no one course does as much in all these areas as journalism,” Browne said.

The survey also listed innovation, flexibility, self-direction, leadership and accountability as skills gained in the journalism classroom.

“Journalism programs are excellent for developing many of the ‘real-world’ skills that high school is intended to help students develop. By participating in (these) programs, students develop highly functional communication skills, learn to work cooperatively to finish a product, practice meeting deadlines and explore and perfect their abilities in writing, art and many other areas,” Raugewitz said.

In response to the KSDE’s decision, the KSPA has put together an ad hoc committee that has been lobbying privately for flexibility in journalism CTE funding.

“We hope that there is some leeway (and that) the decision is not final,” said Browne.

Still, most in the field agree that the face of journalism is changing.

“I think it very important for traditional journalism to remain as much a part of society as possible. In a way, journalism is a foundation of our country,” said Altwies.

Browne adds that there is a misperception of newspaper loosing readers, but journalism as a whole is not.

“It is still a vital part of what our country is about,” Browne said.

Altwies advises current and future high school journalists to take a stand.

“My advice would be the same I would give to any person at any age who is willing to fight for something they have a passion for; don’t give up,” Altwies said. “If you truly love to do something, you will exhaust every option. I think there are plenty of teenagers out there who are interested enough to keep high school journalism programs alive.”

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Ryan

A recent decision by the Kansas Department of Education would have William Allen White rolling in his grave.

The department plans on cutting the career and technology education funding, which helps subsidize the technical side of publications, including cameras and software, for journalism classes in 2012. The reason? The state has decided that journalism is no longer a viable career and does not prepare students for “high demand,” “high skill” and “high wage” jobs. Apparently those are the standards of success in Kansas.

So why should you care?

These high school journalism classes feed collegiate programs across the state, which in turn produce practicing journalists who help inform the electorate.

As someone who took journalism classes at a high school with a strong program, this course of events is especially troubling for me, as I’ve seen how the skills students learn in journalism courses often go beyond the classroom.

Mary Anne McCloud and Erica Rickard, my journalism teachers at Newton High School, taught courses that focused on critical thinking, interpersonal communications, writing and working with the latest design software, while encouraging students to create a product that examined the world around them.

White would be disturbed by KSDE’s move because he was a proponent of journalism education – even the J-School at the University of Kansas is named after him. White, who won two Pulitzer Prizes, knew the value of journalism ina democracy and stood up to the Ku Klux Klan in the pages of the Emporia Gazette during the racist ‘20s.

Journalism serves as a pillar of a democracy, a watchdog of the government that, at the local level, can connect our communities and at the state and national levels, give us perspective on our society.

Aren’t you tired of those pundits on the national networks? That’s not real journalism. But if we teach our youth the fundamentals of journalism and its importance in a society, we might be able to win back an honest media.

Thomas Jefferson said it best:

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

I’m starting to agree. Perhaps the Kansas Department of Education should focus its efforts on making better citizens, not just better employees.

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