Jessica Bakeman
Jessica Bakeman reports on K-12 and higher education for WLRN, south Florida's NPR affiliate. While new to Miami and public radio, Jessica is a seasoned journalist who has covered education policymaking and politics in three state capitals: Jackson, Miss.; Albany, N.Y.; and, most recently, Tallahassee.
Jessica first moved to the Sunshine State in 2015 to help launch POLITICO Florida as part of the company’s national expansion. She is the immediate past president of the Capitol Press Club of Florida, a nonprofit organization that raises money for college scholarships benefiting journalism students.
Jessica was an original member of POLITICO New York’s Albany bureau. Also in the Empire State, Jessica covered politics for The Wall Street Journal and USA Today. As part of Gannett’s three-person Albany bureau, she won the New York Publishers Association award for distinguished state government coverage in 2013 and 2014. Jessica twice chaired a planning committee for the Albany press corps’ annual political satire show, the oldest of its kind in the country.
She started her career at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson. There she won the Louisiana/Mississippi Associated Press Managing Editors’ 2013 first place award for continuing coverage of former Gov. Haley Barbour’s decision to pardon more than 200 felons as he left office.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in journalism and English literature from SUNY Plattsburgh, a public liberal arts college in northeastern New York. She (proudly) hails from Rochester, N.Y.
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The statewide chapter of No Kid Hungry, a national organization tackling childhood food insecurity, has seen more requests for grants to support transporting food directly to students and families. -
A grant program designed to dismantle anti-Black racism has led to a new initiative: Native American studies.
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The Broward County School Board hopes to meet next Thursday to finalize the separation agreements and begin discussions about appointing an interim superintendent.
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Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie offers to leave more than three years after leading the district through the nation's deadliest high school shooting.
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Some faculty at the University of Miami responded to last summer's reckoning over racial injustice by proposing a new program in Native American and Global Indigenous Studies.
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When lawmakers have slashed Florida's Bright Futures scholarship during past difficult budget cycles, Black and Latino students lost out the most.
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The systemic draining of local control is about politics — and it's about money.
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Many parents appear to be keeping their children out of public school, especially from kindergarten. The declines could mean less state funding for school districts.
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Teachers get money from the state to spend on their classrooms — but some pandemic must-haves are off limits.
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The university, following the lead of other schools, is skipping spring break to limit the risk that student travel would lead to a spike in COVID-19 transmission.
