This Tuesday The Washington Post added a “clarification” to Local stories Friday that claimed Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s proposal to set up a parental hotline to report “divisive” content in schools was wholly opposed by every single one of the commonwealth’s 133 superintendents even though, in reality, it was only a letter passed by their trade association’s executive board.
Greg Schneider is yet to correct the report as he maintains that it was incorrect. “[a]ll 133 Virginia public school division superintendents” want Youngkin “to scrap the ‘tip line’…to…complain about teachers and principals” even though, again, it’s not that straightforward.
First, here’s what Schneider wrote (click “expand”):
Governor. All 133 Virginia school division directors have asked him to scrap the “tip line” that allows parents and teachers to complain about principals and teachers. Glenn Youngkin (R) to scrap the “tip line” set up to let parents complain about teachers and principals and have asked him to stop his campaign against the teaching of “divisive” content in schools.
According to the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, its executive director voiced concerns Thursday in a written letter addressed to Jillian Balow. Balow stated that the recent report of the administration that identified policies for racial equity had been misguided, and was prepared with no input from schools around the state.
“Division superintendents disagree with your assumption that discriminatory and divisive concepts have become widespread in Virginia school divisions,” states the letter from Howard Kiser, executive director of the group, who said he was writing on behalf of the 133 school officials and later said he had not heard “any dissent from superintendents.”
The letter, which was approved by the board but not signed by every member of the group, faults Balow for condemning and discontinuing a slate of racial equity programs “without having involved educators in formulating that position or without having provided evidence to support that position.”
Paragraph four would seem to contain extremely pertinent information on how the letter doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of every superintendent, but the lead graphs and following headline don’t paint that picture: “All 133 Virginia school superintendents urge Youngkin to scrap tip line and content policy.”
We don’t claim to be the be all, end all on how to write news stories (bias aside), but that seems to have been what one might call a hack job.
The rest of the piece rehashed Youngkin’s opposition to critical race theory (CRT) in schools and excerpts from this Virginia Association of School Superintendents letter that said his policies would negatively impact “student achievement in underserved communities” and “quality education” in Virginia.
On the same day Post reporter Valerie Strauss FlauntedSimilar misleading claims in her “analysis” entitled, “Youngkin could set Virginia education back ‘many years’: Read the withering letter from school superintendents blasting governor.”
Strauss claimed that she had all the data in her graph. “133 school superintendents are taking a strong stand against Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s move to end most education equity initiatives.”
A piece is, however. Also posted on Friday from Richmond ABC affiliate WRIC had the key line, but still had it in paragraph five: “VASS Executive Director Ben Kiser clarified that the letter was crafted and adopted by the 12 member board and doesn’t necessarily reflect a consensus among all of its members.”
The story of the WJLA family is being told at WJLA’s D.C. affiliate. two of the 133 weren’t even aware of the letter until it landed in The Post.
It’s not surprising that many reporters have still sent tweets with misleading framing. These are just a few of the examples.
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