Laurie Rogers: Spokane Print Media Failing All of Us, Especially Kids

by Laurie Rogers 

“If they had been forced to include the reality to what they previously say about you, Laurie, it would appear like this: [The truth:] ’Wow, that Laurie Rogers. She volunteers her time to advocate for suitable math, help tiny young children, and uncover the reality about how public colleges invest our income. [What they say:] What a bitch.’”– A pal and colleague

If the Spokane print media ever want to get rid of me and my reporting on Spokane Public Schools (SPS), all they have to do is publish a thorough, accurate and balanced article about me and my efforts to inform Spokane mothers and fathers. I’m positive I would die of the shock. I’m not worried it will happen any time soon.

Their worst betrayal is of the youngsters. I do not realize adults who can appear away from kids in require, who can persistently deny or ignore a child’s grim actuality – even as they take steps to support their personal kids. Sadly, Spokane is filled with adults just like that.

Soon after virtually 7 years of advocacy, I wasn’t amazed at The Spokesman-Overview’s “coverage” of a lawsuit I filed towards SPS above public records. The SR article was published Oct. 9, 2013, on the front web page, over the fold. In the very first sentence, it claims I have a “history of needling officials.” The post is made up of many mistakes, including the date and the wording of my records request. The reporter and editors produced no work to get in touch with me ahead of publishing the article, and the possibility to publish comments on the internet was shut down after just one day.

I’ve been a reporter and an editor. This post would by no means have been published “as is” at the newspapers I worked for. The write-up would have been fact-checked and corrected. Diligent efforts would have been created to get in touch with the subject of the article, and these efforts would have been noted in the write-up. Any factual errors would have been corrected on subsequent days.

Regardless of several attempts, I’ve never ever really had a conversation about training with anyone from the SR. I’ve been investigating the district since 2007, creating an education website since 2008, and I published a guide about training in 2011. I communicate with college students, teachers, mother and father and advocates from around the world. None of this appears to be of interest to the local everyday, which has repeatedly trashed my title and track record with out speaking with me.

• In early 2011, some colleagues and I held a number of public forums on math. Soon after one particular in which administrators had been rude and obstructive, the SR criticized our inability to restrain the administrators and referred to as us district “antagonists.”  The editors didn’t bother to speak with us or explain the aim of our forums.


• In October 2011, throughout an election, I sent the SR a Letter to the Editor that described the Public Disclosure Commission complaint I had filed on the college district. The editor acknowledged my letter but did not publish it. As an alternative, he sent my letter to the SR’s training reporter. Two weeks later on, when the paper ultimately published a short noteabout the PDC complaint, the district had been allowed to respond, but not me.


• In October 2011, the SR published a Letter to the Editor that contained unsubstantiated accusations about a regional citizen and a regional college board candidate. I asked an editor about it, and he mentioned “that one got by us.” Nonetheless, that letter was published three times – twice on-line and once in the paper. As of Nov. 11, 2013, it’s nevertheless on the SR’s Internet site.


• In October 2011, I painstakingly transcribed an audio recording of a candidate forum. Compare my transcription with the SR’s edition, which the paper publishedunattributed two months later. The hyphenation, punctuation, parentheses, word choice and spelling are the exact same.


• In December 2011, with no speaking with me, SR columnist Shawn Vestal wrote that a teacher and I had engaged in “vigorous bashing” of a board candidate prior to the teacher’s hosting of a candidate forum. Asked for evidence, Vestal cited one line from an electronic mail in between the teacher and me. He mentioned he wasn’t “going to hunt down other examples in the e-mails once again.” (This is convenient the email he quoted doesn’t represent “vigorous bashing” and there are no other examples.)


• In 2012, Vestal emailed to inquire for an interview about “the many information requests being filed with the school district.” Wary of his intentions, I did not grant the interview.




• Vestal subsequently wrote that my efforts seem “less than completely hinged” and my complaint seemed “conspiracy-minded and poorly informed.”


• He mentioned that my PDC complaint cited district staff for using school sources to market a board candidate despite the fact that I had emailed a teacher with praise for a candidate. He additional sarcastically, “but that is doubtlessly various.” (It is different. I’m not a public worker.)


• Vestal implied that I may be lying about my connection with neighborhood anti-levy advocates, and he said I’m component of the cause of college district’s “administrative waste and bloat.”




• In 2013, in the online comments for a SR write-up about the district, a commenter referred to as me a “crackpot,” as in “Crackpot hits the jackpot.” I emailed the SR about the comment, and it was eliminated (with out a reply to me). This week, I noticed that a comparable comment (from somebody named “misjustice”) has appeared and was not eliminated.

The SR’s schooling reporter did contact me after in 2011 – not to speak about math or education or my site or my guide. She known as to complain about my comments about her reporting.

Then there is the Inlander, a weekly enjoyment paper in Spokane. Inlander staff members have spoken with me a couple of times about training, and there has been occasional reasonable coverage. Even so, the Inlander also has:

An Inlander reporter did phone to inquire for comments regarding the lawsuit. I asked Cheryl Mitchell, a Spokane attorney, to talk with the Inlander reporter. Here is the Inlander’s “coverage.” The reporter did not quote Mrs. Mitchell, and his write-up falls below the Inlanderheading “Friends and Enemies.”

“Enemies”?? Wow. That is a new one particular on me. I’ve never in my daily life noticed a newspaper phone citizens “enemies.”

Do Inlander editors contemplate the school district to be a buddy or an enemy? If the district is a “friend,” does that make me an “enemy”? I’m just making an attempt to communicate reality to the people. The truth is not comfy to hear, but it is what it is. I did not build these difficulties. I also did not receive a “big payout” from the lawsuit, as the Inlander said I did. The District admitted to errors and produced an “Offer of Judgment,” which included a settlement provide. Most of the settlement paid for my legal counsel.

Meanwhile, the district:

• Did not abide by the requirements of the Public Information Act, and continues to use people who didn’t abide by the PRA requirements. School board directors also maintain making an attempt to undermine the Public Information Act.


• Has failed for decades to properly educate 27,000-28,000 kids, and persistently refuses to give the standard public an exact accounting of pupil outcomes.


• Wants ever-a lot more taxpayer dollars for a failed technique, and refuses to give citizens an precise accounting of how our taxes are invested.


• Is underneath investigation by the Public Disclosure Commission for election activities.


• Employed taxpayer dollars to support support a lawsuit towards taxpayers to wrestle more taxpayer bucks from taxpayers (the McCleary lawsuit).

Is none of this well worth an investigation? I’ve attempted to hold the school district accountable for what it does with our kids and our tax bucks. Is that what makes a citizen an “enemy” today, or “less than fully hinged”?

Because 2006, I’ve usually experimented with to get the substantial road with my training advocacy. I’ve experimented with to not engage in the petty ad hominem attacks I see so often from avid supporters of the public schools. Whereas backbiters tend to post anonymously or below a pseudonym, I publish employing my real title, and I help my comments with details, statistics and hyperlinks.

I’m a frank particular person, but typically polite. I’m a learner, and I work difficult to get my details in purchase. I care about the young children, and I’m a patriot who is deeply concerned about my neighborhood and my country. With instruction in appropriate journalism and argumentation, I know how to request hard concerns, how to compose properly and meticulously, and how to put collectively a strong argument.

None of that issues to backbiters. It’s considerably less complicated to trash whistleblowers than to hold public companies accountable. They really don’t seem to be to know this, but education isn’t about them. Nor is it about me. Education is about the kids. Every person is supposed to be there for the children, to get the youngsters the academics they need. It isn’t supposed to be a make-operate venture, a jobs system, a income trough, a social experiment, or a place for political advocacy.

I’m focused on the children’s academic needs and on district transparency and accountability. I haven’t had a lot assist from these in Spokane city and county “leadership.” This college district boasts a hefty footprint in the city and the state, and has thrown its fat about with impunity and with no obvious shame. Choice-creating appears largely driven by selfish interests, big government salaries and a half-a-billion-bucks-per-year spending budget.

Constructing a coalition to hold the district accountable is an ongoing challenge. Grownups would want to put the children’s requirements ahead of their very own interests, and couple of in leadership look ready. Most appear to not want to danger upsetting this ten,000-pound government gorilla, its hefty capital budget, its horde of union voters, and its stable of taxpayer-funded lawyers. That isn’t a Democrat or Republican thing. It is not a left or appropriate point. It’s a “Just as long as I get mine” factor. When you see the damaging impact on the youngsters, nonetheless, you come to realize how corrupted and perverse it is turn into.

It is appalling that these people are in charge of the effectively-getting and future of children.

I’m not an enemy I’m a messenger, and I attempt to be a great one particular. Every 2nd of what I’ve accomplished in excess of the final seven many years, in an work to aid 27,000+ children who aren’t mine, was volunteered. I did it simply because somebody have to and simply because the newspapers refuse to do it. If they would phase up, I would happily stage down. They will not do it. Instead, they blame me, criticize me and call me names. They steadfastly refuse to appropriately investigate this public company or to inform citizens.

Actual leaders accept the blame and pass the credit. This school district and these media outlets have a habit of scrounging for credit score whilst passing the blame – to teachers, mothers and fathers and the young children themselves. Attempting to have it both ways, they also declare that no blame is warranted due to the fact students are doing as well as can be anticipated. In actuality, the district fails 27,000+ young children in academics every yr. As its leadership can make piles of cash, their close to-absolute focus is on gaining a lot more taxpayer bucks and more energy, even though adroitly covering their tracks.

The print media in Spokane fail all of us, but especially the kids. They refuse to do their job whilst regularly targeting citizens whom they think threaten their status quo. Now, 1 media outlet appears to have made a decision that some law-abiding, properly-intentioned citizens are “enemies.”

It is irresponsible and unsafe, and it is difficult for media to be a lot more alarming than that.

Laurie H. Rogers has a bachelor’s degree in mass communication and a master’s in interpersonal communication, emphasizing the evaluation of argumentation and logic. In 2001, she founded Safer Child, Inc., a nonprofit youngster advocacy data resource. In 2007, she narrowed her advocacy to public training, and in 2010, she founded Target on the Square™, a nonprofit organization devoted to enhancing American K-twelve education.

Laurie is the author of the site “Betrayed,” located at http://betrayed-whyeducationisfailing.blogspot.com/. Her book Betrayed: How the Training Establishment Has Betrayed America and What You Can Do about It (Rowman &amp Littlefield Education, 2011) is now obtainable from Amazon and Barnes &amp Noble.

In addition to serving on the executive committee for Where’s the Math?, Laurie has a background in finance, journalism and youngster advocacy. She has volunteered in colleges – tutoring young children in literacy and math, and educating chess, argumentation and knitting. She lives in Spokane with her husband, daughter and two cats.

Speak to Laurie Rogers at wlroge@comcast.net.

Laurie Rogers: Spokane Print Media Failing All of Us, Especially Kids