Poynter High - Story Ideas

While their parents watch their retirement accounts shrink, teens no doubt see something else in the dropping Dow and the government bailout. How can school media make this story relevant to their readers?

A few ideas:

• Private schools are experiencing enrollment declines and offering more scholarships, with tuition out of reach for some families, reports Poynter's Al Tompkins in his daily story ideas column, Al's Morning Meeting. What's the trend in your area, at your school?
• How has the economy changed the way your students live their lives? The Campanile, student newspaper of Palo Alto (Calif.) High, profiled a student who bought a Segway, a two-wheeled electric scooter. It plugs in, so no gas to buy. What other strategies do students use? The paper also featured a roundup of secondhand bookstores. Could that reflect changing buying habits, or alternative ways to spend a night out that don't cost much? MSNBC reported last spring that it was already happening then.
• What if a student's family loses a home to foreclosure, or a parent loses a job? They move and adjust to new surroundings. They get a job, bum rides off friends and boyfriends, even contribute money from their paychecks to pay the family's bills. The ABlast, of Annandale (Va.) High, tells that story in Students suffer under the deteriorating economy.
• The Grizzly Gazette from Granite Hills (Calif.) High asked students if the government should bail out Wall Street, and results were split down the middle when I looked, with about 100 votes cast.

Students care about the economy. Student media can help them understand it and see how it affects the lives of people they know.

Poynter colleague Al Tompkins wrote an item in Morning Meeting about this cool new Google tool that lets you type in any topic and see video clips of the politicians talking about it. Type in "education" and you see excerpts of candidates' ads that mention education and entire speeches that include the word. The embedded player even shows you where in the clip to look and shows an excerpt from the text, so you see the context.

Seems like a great resource for students writing papers on the campaign for a social studies class or preparing arguments for a speech or debate.

And it got me thinking.  School media strive for relevance. What if you regularly recommended Websites that could help with schoolwork? Ask teachers for suggestions. Ask the smartest kids in each grade for suggestions. Help your classmates go beyond Wikipedia when using the Internet for a resource. Then present your findings in a visual way, with chunky text and visuals that make it easy to read and to use.

From Al's Morning Meeting:

The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reports that many school cafeterias nationwide are not inspected twice a year as required by federal statute. When they are inspected, a big percentage of them fail.

For example, "... two-thirds of schools in New York state are not receiving the twice-yearly health inspections ..." The story said in one New York county 80 percent of the schools had not been inspected twice in a year and one in four were not inspected at all.

Two annual inspections were mandated by Congress in 2004 for all schools -- public and private, as well as nontraditional education settings such as jails and health care facilities -- that participate in the National School Lunch Program, which provides low-cost meals to needy students.

"One of the most common reasons we hear is that it's not schools not trying to comply, but that staffing of public health inspectors is so short it's difficult to even get inspections scheduled," said Jean Daniel, spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees the program and the law. "It's not that schools are sitting there saying, 'I'm not going to do it.' "

Only 12 states, including Florida and Virginia, reported 90 percent or more of their schools in compliance, according to Agriculture Department data. An equal number of states, including California and Colorado, had less than half their schools inspected twice.

Six states had lower rates of compliance than New York. Maine had the worst, with just 3 percent of its 666 schools getting two inspections annually.

High school seniors counting on a Pell Grant to help with college costs next year may face fierce competition for the government funds.  

According to estimates from the Department of Education, Congress will need close to $6-billion in additional funds from taxpayers to provide for the increase in demand of Pell Grants.  The New York Times reports:

 "As of July 31, 800,000 more students had applied for grants than on that date last year, according to the memorandum, which called the increase one of the largest ever year to year.  This year, more than six million low-income college students will receive Pell Grants ranging from $431 to $4,731, federal officials said."

Localize this story:

• Tell the stories of seniors who plan to apply for Pell Grants. What are their options, if fundind doesn't come through?
• Interview your Congressman about the Pell Grant crisis.
• Talk to guidance counselors and show students other resources for finding scholarships and financial aid.
  

Click here for more information on the Pell Grant program.