Award-winning education coverage that matters

Dear Henrico Citizen reader:

Education coverage has never been more important – and that’s why we committed to fund more of it last year, when we hired our first-ever full-time reporter specifically to report about education.

Anna Bryson joined us from Florida June 1 through our partnership with Report for America and quickly began producing the type of intelligent, meaningful coverage our readers sought. In the 11 months since, she’s written nearly 200 articles about a variety of issues involving public, private and higher education.

We think she’s provided some of the best education coverage in the state – and judges in this year’s Virginia Press Association News and Advertising contest agreed, naming two separate packages of her work among the top three in their statewide category.

The reality is that without Anna’s coverage, it’s unlikely that Henrico citizens would have known about efforts to remove books from Henrico schools; the school system’s efforts to attract a more diverse workforce; or the Henrico Education Association’s consideration of a collective bargaining push.

They wouldn’t have known how Reynolds Community College was working to reach and re-enroll students who dropped out because of the pandemic, or why a record number of Virginia children were planning to attend public preschool; or why the school board’s transgender policy differed from state guidelines.

Those award-winning stories exemplified the thorough work Anna has done for the Henrico community since she arrived, and it’s continued in recent months with her coverage of a lawsuit alleging a violation of special education law; CodeRVA High School; the impact of a longtime Eastern Henrico principal; how the Steward School remained open and thrived throughout the pandemic; and the reason many colleges are bypassing standardized tests, among many other pieces.

But we need your help to continue funding Anna’s position and the important work she is doing.

At a time when other publications were losing or cutting their education reporters, we hired one because you told us it mattered to you – and Anna’s coverage has demonstrated how true that is.

All of her articles – along with every other article we’ve published in our nearly 21 years of existence – have been free to read. But they aren’t free for us to produce.

Factor in Anna’s annual salary and the commensurate portions of related expenses – the time our editor spends reviewing and her work; the fees we pay for our monthly content-management and web-hosting systems, as well as other related digital costs; our professional liability insurance; internet and phone access fees; and assorted other related expenses – and the bottom line becomes evident:

Each of Anna’s articles costs us about $221 to publish.

If you believe her coverage is as important as we do, we appreciate your contribution of any amount to help her, and us, continue to provide it to you.

And as always, thank you for reading!
–Tom Lappas, publisher