Education Reporter

CalMatters is seeking two experienced reporters to cover California education. The first position is to cover K-12 schools. The other position is to cover early childhood education.

The K-12 reporter will cover the largest K-12 system in the country, with nearly 10,000 schools serving more than 5 million students. The early education reporter will focus on the formative years of childhood, from infancy to 5 years old. 

Both beats will focus on the systems and institutions that purport to support students or young children. Coverage areas will include, but are not limited to: how well children are learning; how obstacles are affecting outcomes; the impact of technology on children and education; and the disparities among different groups. A key aspect of the job will focus on what works as well as what doesn’t.

We’re looking for reporters with a strong track record of enterprise reporting who can also produce quicker-turn stories when necessary. Multi-media skills and foreign language fluency are a plus. These beats require an understanding of education policy and finance. You’ll need to understand that complex landscape and explain it to readers in an accessible way. More importantly, you’ll need to show readers why these issues matter.

What You‘ll Cover

• Finance and policy — As an education reporter, you’ll cover statewide policy and finance decisions. At times, you’ll focus on a specific district or region to tell important stories that resonate statewide. 
• Legislation — You’ll track pending legislation and focus on those bills with the most potential to change how students are learning.
• Key players — Students, teachers and parents form the core of education. Your stories will put them at the forefront of our education coverage. 
• The use of technology, including AI, in education and the impact of technology, including social media, on children.

What You‘ll Do

You’ll approach these beats with a focus on accountability. You’ll tell readers what isn’t working and why. Or conversely, what is working and the lessons policy makers and education officials are learning from that. The California K-12 system and early education landscape is vast, and you’ll need to identify the most relevant issues and policy decisions. With every story, you’ll look for the human impact and find those people most affected — students or young children, teachers and parents.

CalMatters puts an emphasis on collaboration. You’ll work with our data team, audience engagement team, other content teams and partner news organizations to ensure our coverage is thorough and is reaching a broad audience. At times you’ll work with our radio, video, social media and audience specialists to put our work on those platforms. You’ll be part of a team committed to collaboration and producing high-quality journalism.

Compensation And Benefits

These full-time positions with benefits are based in California and are represented by the Pacific Media Workers Guild.

There is a preference for candidates located in the greater Sacramento area but it is not required. We anticipate hiring reporters with different levels of experience. Those ranges are $75,000-$85,000 per year and $95,000-$105,000 per year. The salary ranges are our best estimate, in good faith, of what we expect to pay for these positions. Our final salary figure will take into account the candidate’s experience and skills, as well as our commitment to pay our staff equitably.

We offer a comprehensive benefits package with medical, dental and vision insurance (95% employer-paid for you and your dependents) from a range of HMO and PPO providers. We also offer paid family leave, FSA/HSA accounts, a 401(k) match of up to 4%, life insurance at no cost, cell/internet stipend, and professional development funds.

How to Apply

If you’re interested, provide a resume, cover letter and work samples. In your cover letter, please tell us which reporting role best suits you and why. Tell us how you would approach this role.

We believe strongly in personal and authentic engagement in our recruitment process and want to hear from you. We ask that you answer these questions yourself without the aid of AI or other automated tools.

Please do not contact the hiring manager or other staffers directly. If you have questions, or a reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, don’t hesitate to contact [email protected].

CalMatters is committed to becoming an antiracist organization. We are an expanding and collaborative newsroom, successfully forging a new model for sustainable, intelligent, nonprofit journalism. We do our best to center justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in all that we do—of which hiring is just one part. We encourage you to ask us about what concrete steps we are taking in service of these ideals. We strongly encourage applicants who are people of color, LGBTQ, and people with disabilities, regardless of national origin, alienage, and/or former incarceration status.

A college degree is not required.

To apply, navigate to: https://calmatters.org/about/jobs/education-reporter/

About CalMatters and The Markup

CalMatters, now in its eleventh year, is an award-winning nonprofit, nonpartisan news venture dedicated to explaining the policy and politics of America’s biggest state and the world’s fifth CalMatters, now in its eleventh year, is an award-winning nonprofit, nonpartisan news venture dedicated to explaining the policy and politics of America’s biggest state and the world’s fifth largest economy. In 2024, we merged with The Markup, a nonprofit national news publication that challenges technology to serve the public good.

We produce vivid, original multimedia journalism, data-driven news analyses and watchdog accountability reporting on calmatters.org and themarkup.org, and we distribute our work at no cost to more than 250 media partners. Our success metric isn’t clicks — it’s impact. Products at CalMatters/The Markup serve millions of people. For example:

• Digital Democracy, our unprecedented, custom-built AI tool that tracks everything you’d want to know about state legislators has unearthed stories and prompted legislators to call for change.
• More than 1 in 5 California voters head to the polls informed by CalMatters’ nonpartisan Voter Guide.
• Blacklight, our real-time privacy inspector, has been used over 18 million times and helped journalists, nonprofits, and academics hold tech accountable.

We also have the most diverse major newsroom in California. Here you’ll be working alongside dozens of experienced journalists in a supportive, collaborative atmosphere.