I It’s a whole new beat straddling education, business and government.
THE cost of college. Labor shortage. Educational inequalities. We have all heard these phrases. How do they fit together?
I don’t have all the pieces of the puzzle put together, but I’m looking for answers as part of a new report at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel focused on education crossroads and the Wisconsin workforce. I ask questions like:
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel created this new post — I’m still working on a catchy headline — in partnership with Report for Americaa national service organization that places journalists in newsrooms across the country to cover underreported stories and help reverse the decline in local news coverage.
The role of universities and technical schools is changing rapidly
Although I have a background in K-12 and higher education journalism, I’m starting from scratch here since I started working in Milwaukee this summer. It’s a whole new beat that straddles education, business, government and families. I don’t have any previous reporter stories to reference or a specific part of the state to cover, but I do have plenty of data pointing to cultural and demographic changes related to education and the workforce .
Support local journalism: Make a tax-deductible donation to continue this coverage
Let’s start with what we know:
- Almost every media outlet is trying to answer this question: Why are fewer high school graduates going to college? They point to the rising cost of a college degree, the prevalence of student debt and the COVID-19 pandemic. These factors are making more and more people wonder: Is college worth it?
- In Wisconsin, fewer people are attending college or university. In the 2016-2017 school year, 62% of high school graduates enrolled in a college or university within the first fall after graduation. By 2021-2022, this figure had fallen to 51%.
- Wisconsin’s colleges and universities were experiencing declines long before the pandemic. For example, fall enrollment on UW System campuses peaked in 2010 to approximately 182,000 students and fell to 161,000 in 2022. Full-time equivalent students at Wisconsin Technical Collegesenrollment increased from approximately 78,000 in 2012-13 to 58,500 in 2021-22.
Aging population and population loss hurt Wisconsin
These cultural shifts are particularly important in Wisconsin because of the state’s demographic trends, which do not work in its favor:
- Baby boomers, the generation born between 1946 and 1964, are getting older and no longer working. Younger workers naturally need to pick up the slack, but that could be difficult in Wisconsin, where young people are leaving the state faster than moving in.
- Between 2012 and 2020, 106,000 people under the age of 26 left Wisconsin, while fewer than 89,000 moved in. About a third of those who left Wisconsin moved to bordering states. Unless this trend changes — and it is not expected — Wisconsin’s working-age population, people ages 25 to 64should decrease by around 130,000 people by 2030.
- The state’s unemployment rate stood at 3.2% in October and is near its all-time low in months. But some employment sectors are expected to create a significant number of jobs by 2030 and will need more skilled workers to fill them, e.g. education and health services, workers in commerce, transport and utilities, and workers in the manufacturing sector.
Closely linked to all of these issues is another big topic: fairness. When I study the links between education and workforce in WisconsinI want to understand how systems meet the needs of everyone, not just some people – like People with Disabilitiespeople re-entering the workforce after incarceration, people who did not receive equitable support from teachers from a young age, or whose K-12 schools lacked financial resources.
These are the things that have been on my mind since July 10. Since then, I have written about increase in number of young apprentices statewidean innovative program to move workers into agricultural jobs And billing issues at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
But when it comes to these bigger picture questions, I still have a lot to figure out. I think that’s a good thing.
I started my career reporting on education in Iowa
Before moving to Milwaukee, I spent two years covering K-12 education for the Iowa City Press-Citizen and Register of Monks. I received six reporting prizes from the Iowa Newspaper Association during my time in Iowa, including the Outstanding Young Iowa Journalist award.
I started working at the age of 16 in a warehouse for a chain of gift stores in Minnesota. From there, I worked in pet food and supply retail, as a coffee barista, breakfast line cook, and gourmet waitress. I also have experience in one of the job sectors most short of workers: healthcare. Between my reporting jobs, I worked as a full-time direct caregiver and as an activities staffer in a memory care unit at an assisted living facility near Madison.
I attended K-12 public schools in my hometown of Minneapolis and earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature and journalism from the University of Minnesota Twin-Cities. I also studied abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina during college and am comfortable interviewing sources in Spanish.
What is Report for America and how does it work?
The reality is that news agencies are in trouble today. Between 2004 and 2020, the number of newsroom employees in the United States fell by 57%.. New research has just been published by Northwestern University found that the country is losing an average of 2.5 local newspapers per week, leaving more than half of all U.S. counties classified as “news deserts,” places where citizens have limited access to information and reliable local information.
Report for America aims to reverse this trend by adding journalists to local news organizations across the United States. Here’s how the process works: Newsrooms identify undercovered topics and apply to Report for America for a new staff member. The nonprofit organization chooses which newsrooms to support, then recruits and selects journalists to fill the positions. It is up to the editorial staff to choose from a group of pre-selected candidates to fill a position which will last up to three years.
Support local journalism: Make a tax-deductible donation to help maintain this essential reporting
The editorial staff and RFA each pay a share of the cost of journalists’ salaries. The local newsroom is required to raise funds for the final portion of the salary to help sustain the position. In addition to their reporting, journalists must lead a service project related to media literacy for youth in their community.
At the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, there are three reports for America Corps members: Madeleine Heimwhich covers the Mississippi River basin and Caitlin Looby, which focuses on the Great Lakes. In our sister newspapers, Madison Lammert covers Wisconsin’s child care industry and early childhood education in Post-Crescent; Danielle Du Clos is the K-12 education reporter for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. Three journalists from Journal Sentinelle, Jessica Rodriguez, Sarah Volpenhein And Frank Vaisvilasserved as corps members in Wisconsin and were promoted to permanent editorial positions.
Send me your stories: I need help putting a puzzle together
First and foremost, I need to talk with people at all intersections of this issue. I’m just as open to your personal stories and anecdotes as I am to current affairs advice. So please let me know: are you an employer struggling to find qualified workers? A teacher who sees students leaving school to enter the job market?
I also want this rhythm to evolve over time. This means I need reader feedback. How are we? What should we cover more?
My inbox is always open: CKrejci@gannett.com.
Cleo Krejci covers higher education, job training and retraining as a Report For America corps member based at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at CKrejci@gannett.com. Follow her on X @_CleoKrejci