Idaho Education News’ Darren Svan won a national grant to support a project examining the state’s push to boost workforce training.
Svan will spend the next 10 weeks traveling the state, from Rathdrum to Rexburg, on the $8,000 award from the Education Writers Association (EWA). The national award was given to analyze the impacts of two education initiatives — Superintendent Debbie Critchfield’s Idaho Career Ready Students and Gov. Brad Little’s Idaho Launch.
Idaho leaders have committed $120 million to shift the narrative from obtaining college degrees to preparing for in-demand careers — pushing the idea that workforce training, apprenticeships, career technical education, trade schools and technical colleges are critical to the state’s economic success, especially in rural and remote communities. How effective has the approach been?
EWA awarded 11 projects across the country. Fellowships are designed to help cover reporting costs and are part of the EWA’s drive to support enterprise journalism that informs the public about consequential issues in education.
“The caliber of the new fellows and their projects reflects the vital, timely work being done by our journalists members in newsrooms large and small,” said Kathy Chow, EWA’s executive director. “We are thrilled to kick off the new year with such encouraging evidence of the strength and importance of the education beat.”
The winter 2024 EWA “Reporting Fellows” represent a diverse mix of news organizations, like The Hechinger Report and Chalkbeat. EdNews will publish its project in the 2023-24 academic year. To read more about this year’s fellows, use this link.
