Normal radio station receives grant to increase local education coverage

Image Courtesy of Illinois State University

NORMAL, Ill. – Bloomington-Normal’s NPR affiliate station WGLT received a $20,000 grant to increase news coverage of local schools.

Awarded by the Google News Initiative, WGLT plans to boost coverage of Unit 5, District 87, ISU Lab schools and other public and private schools in the McLean County area. WGLT News Director Eric Stock explained why they chose to focus on education and how it serves the community.

 “We try to examine areas where we could improve and expand our coverage… areas where we feel the community is not being serviced in the best way it should,” Stock said. “It’s been an ongoing conversation, and this presented itself as an opportunity for us to apply for funding.”

According to Stock, education coverage matters from the administrative level, as it affects what is going on inside the classroom.

“Most people in the community, especially parents of school children are more concerned about what their kids are doing in the classroom, and that’s what we are trying to address with this and ideally turn this into a long-term, sustainable effort.”

Stock believes the benefits of reporting on local education are not mutually exclusive to the children or parents of children in attendance. 

“A community that has a healthy and strong school system is going to have so many additional benefits, and we’re all connected to it. Even without children attending those schools, our tax dollars go to support what public educators are doing. So, a good school can do a lot for the community. And we feel that that really requires further examination on our part.”

The educational coverage will manifest in both on-air and online content.