The Seattle Times today introduced their new “Education Lab” project:
“The Education Lab,” a yearlong Seattle Times project in partnership with The Solutions Journalism Network, will spotlight promising responses to problems that have long bedeviled our public school system. We will examine innovative or effective approaches around the state and the nation, looking at how they were put in place, the pitfalls, the results and whether other school districts might emulate.
Great, because we need more reporting on education.
Except the one thing the Seattle Times glosses over in this announcement is that the bulk of Education Lab’s funding comes in the form of a $450,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, an organization that has spent millions championing market-based reforms like charter schools, standardized testing, merit pay, and the rest of the corporate education reform agenda. Likewise, the Gates Foundation is also a major funder of the Solutions Journalism Network, the Seattle Times’ partner in this project.
Imagine if Exxon funded the paper’s environmental reporting, or the Koch brothers funded the paper’s political reporting, or Frank Blethen funded the paper’s labor reporting. How can we possibly expect objective, neutral, fair, and balanced reporting on allegedly “innovative” reforms like those the Gates Foundation promotes, from a journalism project funded by the Gates Foundation?