- Joining us now is Barbara Martinez, Chief Executive Officer of the New Jersey Children's Foundation.

Full disclosure, the foundation is an underwriter of our Urban Education That Works Initiative.

Barbara, good to see you again.

- So nice to be here, Steve.

Thanks for having me.

- You got it.

Barbara, before you became the executive director of the New Jersey Children's Foundation, the website is up right now, your background is in journalism.

Talk about that background.

And then I'm gonna ask you a little bit more about media coverage, mainstream, legacy, and other media coverage of urban education, please.

- Yep, well, as you know, I was born and raised in Newark.

And always wanted to be a reporter.

And was really fortunate that I spent a 20 year career at The Wall Street Journal as an investigative reporter in the last few years there.

As a reporter covering Newark and Newark Public Schools.

And it really hit home to me to be in schools that worked and schools that didn't work because I was a little girl in Newark who went to schools that should have been better.

And I got to college and nearly flunked out.

And I hadn't read a book and I was a straight A student.

And, you know, and that it was so important to me that the media tell the truth and that people tell the truth about what we're really offering in schools and how we're preparing kids for their future.

- Barbara, let's stay on this.

I'm fascinated by us, the media.

How we do what we do, how we don't do what we're supposed to do.

The graphic is gonna come up, "Media Leadership" and here’s my question.

Where do you think most people are getting most of their information about urban education?

Because there are implications for our representative democracy in that, not to mention urban education as well, please.

- Yeah, it's terrifying to me where people are getting their information.

They're getting it from TikTok.

They're getting it from Instagram.

When I was a reporter covering the Zuckerberg money that came into Newark Public Schools in around 2010, there were 10 reporters.

Now there may be two or three.

And we just, you know, learned that there's gonna be even fewer, so it is very scary where people are getting information.

And it is so critical because the media is a form of accountability.

And if we don't have accountability in our schools, who's gonna make sure that kids are getting what they need?

- So along those lines, Barbara, as the CEO of the Children's Foundation, who has this background in media, what I'm perplexed by, and your perspective on this matters so much, is that those in power in policymaking positions on the state level, the federal level, often make policy based on their perception of public opinion.

Public opinion is shaped by what you were just describing as the media landscape and universe.

People, you know, the algorithms, I'll get you what you, I'll get you information that tell you that you're right about what you think you already believe.

I know I said that in a very inarticulate way.

What are the policy implications of a public being so misinformed about urban education and then policy being made to try to reflect that?

- Again, it's very scary when I'm looking at this landscape and it's bad for democracy to have just a smaller group of people who are focused on accurate information and balanced information.

And so at the Children's Foundation, we do what we can to provide data.

And what's a little scary to me is that we are one of the few organizations left that are providing, we're putting it all out there, all the information.

You know, you could say that the government provides information, and they do.

You could OPRA the government and data, but they provide it in a way that's not consumable by the average person.

And so there's really no one breaking it down for people and saying, this is why this is important.

When our literacy rate is under 30% in Newark, this is why it's important, because this is thousands of human beings who are gonna go into the work world, and not have the skills necessary, and not be able to finish college, and all of these things that are really important for children of today and the adults of tomorrow who are gonna run the world.

- Along those lines, so our series, "Urban Education That Works," attempts to look at the best practices, the better practices.

Not perfect, because I don't even know what that means, of schools that appear to be doing well for their students.

However, when it comes to the media piece of this, particularly the social media piece of this, Barbara, it's much easier to show videos on TikTok, or Instagram, whatever, of an urban school situation where a teacher is, and these things happen, but the problem is a teacher in an urban school getting beaten up, a fight in the hallway, all sorts of chaos and violence.

And those things happen, but to represent that as the totality of urban education impacts people's perception.

And ultimately, again, policies from Washington and Trenton and local school boards.

Am I oversimplifying that, Barbara?

- You're not, and what's worse is that people's attention span because of things like Instagram and TikTok and all of these videos coming at you that are 30 seconds and cute little kittens, our attention span has shrunk.

And it's very scary for kids, but it's happened to adults as well.

And all the studies and the science shows the impact.

These are serious issues that need people to really sit down and be able to analyze data and sit down for a while.

And we've got a citizenry now who is used to getting their information in 15 or ten second bites.

That's problematic.

- We're describing the severity of the problem, okay.

What is one meaningful action that won't solve this massive, complex, multifaceted problem of media coverage, lack of media coverage, distorted media coverage, sloppy media coverage, simplistic media coverage?

What is one action that you believe we, in the media, the so-called, I don't even know what mainstream media is, legacy media, should be taking in this incredibly competitive environment where everyone's fighting for a piece of the audience?

What should we be doing?

- That's such a great question.

I mean, those of you who are left have to keep asking the hard questions.

And I do see some foundations across the country coming up and trying to ensure that we keep what's left there, and trying to start new media, but we also, we're funders of media.

But I think this is one of those things that people will not realize it's such a problem until it has become such a problem that it's really hard to get out of the hole.

- One more final question here.

This is an age old question in media that I'm sure you thought about, and learned when you got into the business, and I continue to think about it.

For those of us in the media practicing, is it our job to be giving people what they need to know, you know where I'm going, versus what we believe the algorithm tells us they want to be entertained by?

- Ideally, there's room for both.

I get worried when you don't have one or the other, or when you really don't have the information that you need.

We, I mean, the future of our country is in our schools right now.

And if our schools don't get better, think about the future of our country.

And so it's very concerning, but it's really important that there are people to say, this is important.

This is somebody's life.

If you can't read at third grade, what are you going to do?

How are you going to get a job that's meaningful and that where you can provide for your family?

It's very scary.

- Finally, to Barbara's point.

People will say, oh, you're talking about covering media coverage of urban education.

Stop thinking about urban education and think about the young people in urban communities across this state and nation who, as Barbara said, will grow up and be members of society.

What is it that we want and need from them in terms of their contribution to society or lack of that contribution?

It's complex stuff.

P.S., complexity's hard to cover.

That doesn't mean it's not important to cover.

To Barbara Martinez, who's the Chief Executive Officer of the New Jersey Children's Foundation.

I want to thank you so much for joining us again, Barbara.

Thank you.

- Thanks for having me, Steve.

- You got it.

Stay with us, we'll be right back.

- [Narrator] Think Tank with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

The North Ward Center.

The Russell Berrie Foundation.

New Jersey’s Clean Energy program.

The Fidelco Group.

RWJBarnabas Health.

Let’s be healthy together.

Citizens Philanthropic Foundation.

And by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by New Jersey Monthly.

- Let's talk about the state of hunger.

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Now it's time to look forward.

What will the next 50 years bring?

How can we, regular people like you and me, make a difference?

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