The Hechinger Report - Help us uphold democracy.

Dear Reader,

The Hechinger Report believes that a robust democracy cannot exist without a vigorous, balanced and independent press. This year, when the coronavirus threw the U.S. education system into upheaval and massive protests and a presidential election highlighted our deepening political divides, our stories about the vital role education plays for our economy, our democracy and our future were more important than ever.

Our mission has always been to bring the facts about the gaping divides in American education to the public: This year, we showed you how the pandemic exacerbated these divides with stories on the outbreaks in schools and false starts and logistical problems in reopening. We also tackled the longer-term questions facing schools, including a potential cliff in the teacher workforce, the variety of ways the virus has accelerated the affordability crisis in higher ed, and how states and institutions have willfully allowed inequities to fester.

We’ve always made it a priority to write about the ways systemic racism puts Black, Latino and Indigenous students on unequal footing: This year, we published dozens of in-depth stories about the ways race and racism shape American schooling.

And, as always, we brought you into the lives of the people most impacted: Families struggling without child care, jobs or enough to eat; college students navigating impossible choices about whether to go back to school; and kids left out of learning by the unsolved and widening digital divide. 

You may not know that, as an independent, nonprofit newsroom, The Hechinger Report depends on donations from our readers to sustain this critical public service. Simply put, we need YOU to keep us going.

Between now and December 31, all new MONTHLY donations will be matched at their ANNUAL amount and all ONE-TIME gifts will be DOUBLED. This match — and your support — will go a long way toward helping us meet our year-end goal of raising $70,000.

Join us today and help keep our publication (and our democracy) strong.

Invest in journalism for the people, with the people.

If you'd prefer to mail a check, please make it payable to "Hechinger Report, Teachers College" and send to:

The Hechinger Report, Teachers College
Attn: Kimberly Irizarri-Douglas
525 W 120th Street, Box 306
New York, NY  10027

If you are already a current member and received this message in error, we apologize. Please let us know by replying to this email.