Here's the thing about news coverage of education...

A question I get asked by a lot by board members/concerned individuals is "what are you doing to spread awareness of [acronym]?"

Let's ignore for a minute the fact that no one on my (Houston) team has any formal media/PR training, and focus on the myriad of accomplishment/bragging rights we have to offer. Surely, the public wants to hear about all the good stuff our members and alumni are doing in schools, right?

But see--I'm not convinced, because right now I'm watching a report on sex offenders in schools (in this case, an 8th grader), and it occurs to me that every news report I've seen in the past year on schools concerns sex, guns, knives, drugs, dropout cover-up scandal (getting closer!) and other "sexy" topics.

I don't know; maybe if I had children in school I'd be more concerned by these topics instead of seeing them as fluff. Yes, I am well-aware of my bias.

But as it stands, even if we had a crack media team cranking out great stories about good things happening in schools, I'm not sure anyone would be interested.