The Arkansas Nonprofit News Network will launch with coverage of the 91st Arkansas General Assembly, with a special focus on education and tax issues. Legislation has already been filed, or is promised, that would greatly expand school vouchers, make it easier to fire teachers and administrators and allow private management corporations to take over certain school districts, including the Little Rock School District, the state's largest. The legislature will consider whether K-12 education, the largest share of the state’s budget, is adequately funded as required by the state Constitution. Increased funding for pre-K and moving higher education funding from enrollment-based to performance-driven also will be debated. All of these discussions will be steered by, and sometimes inform, the debate over how large a tax cut the state budget can afford (a cut of some size is seen as given).
Ibby Caputo, of Newton County, will provide ANNN’s coverage from the state Capitol. A 2014-2015 MIT-Knight Science Journalism Fellow, Caputo covered health care, transportation and breaking news as a reporter for WGBH’s Boston Public Radio and WGBH-TV. Her work has aired on “The World,” “NPR News,” “Morning Edition,” “All Things Considered,” “Weekend Edition,” “Marketplace Morning Report” and “Marketplace Tech.” Her journalism, essays and photography have been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Cape Cod Times, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, theAtlantic.com and elsewhere.
Her email address is ibbycaputo@arknews.org.
If you're a media outlet in Arkansas that is interested in receiving Caputo's reporting for ANNN, please contact Lindsey Millar at lindseymillar@arknews.org.