Resurrecting the Newsroom Beats
Leading independent journalists weigh in on the emerging child care reporting beat and how and why it can shape policy
It’s normal in the Washington, D.C. area to get asked what you do for a living.
Depending on who is asking - and how much of a conversation we’re likely to have about it - my answer will be something vague like, “I’m a writer.” Or, if the question is “where do you work?” I’ll answer, “At a think tank.”
But the true answer of what I do for a living isn’t easily quantifiable because it’s not always immediately recognizable. I write about child care. I do so for a variety of independent publications: publications that focus on child care and early learning - like Early Learning Nation or EdSurge; or publications that cover how child care is tied into other issues - like health, economics, or politics.
In 2022, my Better Life Lab colleague, Haley Swenson, and I wrote an op-ed for the Columbia Journalism Review, entitled “Every News Outlet Needs a Child Care Beat.” Our argument was that the Covid-19 pandemic had radically changed reporting on child care, and many reporters and news outlets were unprepared for the nuance and detail required to understand this policy issue and figure out 1) why child care is so expensive and 2) why, unlike the rest of K-12 education, the government does so little to fund it?
From our op-ed:
During those early months of the pandemic, the number of news stories about the childcare industry increased by 90 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, according to data from the First Five Years Fund. President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better infrastructure package—which includes $400 billion to support childcare and early education, with stipulations for raising the wages of childcare workers, increasing subsidies to families, shoring up struggling childcare centers, and expanding eligibility—established childcare’s place among our national economic priorities. It also sent reporters and news outlets scrambling to cover a complicated subject that spans beats and topics—from business to healthcare to education to child development—as well as regulatory systems and funding mechanisms, state and federal.
Rather than selectively engage childcare as an add-on or afterthought to those legacy beats, the time has come to make childcare its own beat. Complexity and urgency don’t pair well; it’s unrealistic to expect a reporter new to covering childcare to churn out a nuanced story on a tight deadline. Over time, however, a dedicated beat reporter can develop expertise in the nuances, policy implications, and people who shape a subject as complex as childcare—all while, hopefully, building public interest and rewarding it with new understanding.
Since that time, child care reporting has become my official beat. It’s been workable since enough people are realizing that the government can and should do more to fund child care and create a more stable system. There is a growing number of nonprofit news organizations that hold up policy reporting as one of their broader goals and are interested in such stories. And of course, outlets like Substack, which give free reign to the writer to focus on the topic of their choosing. (With a special thanks to those who subscribe and fund the writing and reporting that goes into this).
But for many of us who report on child care, or caregiving more broadly, the future of what this looks like may vary.
So this is why we’re having a conversation. And we want you to join us.
The Changing Nature of the Child Care Beat From Leading Independent Journalists Who Cover It | July 11 at 2:00 PM EDT
I will be moderating this online discussion and explore the importance of journalism in helping people understand the complexities of child care access in the United States.
The panel features some amazing independent journalists, whose work on care you may have seen already, including:
Chabeli Carrazana, The 19th. Read Chabeli’s story on how the lack of child care is preventing small businesses from growing.
Jackie Mader, The Hechinger Report, Read Jackie’s story on what America can learn from Canada’s $10 a day child care system.
Leslie Gray Streeter, The Baltimore Banner, Read any of Leslie’s insightful columns here, including this one on how the 24-hour daycare options may still not be enough.
Mark Swartz, Early Learning Nation. Mark is both a colleague and co-collaborator on this. For a recent excellent story of his, check out this one on how the child care tax credit was a huge benefit to children and families. (Spoiler alert - investing in kids and families pays off significantly - a narrative that still needs to be hammered home until the policymakers in our country start to believe that).
This is co-hosted by my team at the Better Life Lab, and the team at
, which is one of the best news organizations out there covering child care and early learning. If you don’t already subscribe to their Substack, I highly recommend it.All are welcome, please register here.
And if you have a question or comment about what you want to see us address, shoot me an email or leave a comment on this Substack.
What’s Next for Policy Journalism?
A friend of mine tells me her son wants to become a reporter, and I tell her it’s both the best job in the world and one that is hard to sustain. But the real secret sauce to journalism is that other journalists and editors appreciate a good story when we see one. It’s not quite the cutthroat field that it’s been made out to be;f it’s more like a fine-tuned craft that is struggling to find alternative business models to make it workable in all parts of the country.
Journalism is a field that has changed dramatically over the past few decades. What’s also changed is the rise of the nonprofit journalism business model, which has success in other parts of the country. Here is an excellent story from Poynter which features a reporter, Ken Ward, Jr., who I had the privilege of working with when I was on Capitol Hill. (Even over a decade ago, our office had tremendous respect for his deep dive into the coal industry that held the executives accountable for their actions).
But back to child care - policy reporting plays a huge role in building an understanding for people how the political actions in D.C. or state capitols translate into real-world effects. This is why many of us keep showing up, day after day, in the hopes that explaining how investing in kids, or supporting families, or shoring up a broken industry like child care, will have positive externalities for the future.
Thanks, as always, for reading.
this event sounds so cool, Rebecca! I'm sorry to miss it--we'll be on vacation!