Education Solutions Reporter

Salary range: $42,000-$55,000
Location: Work from home in Tucson, Arizona
Healthy work culture: Flexible PTO program, including a sabbatical to relax, reflect, recharge
Deadlines: The current application period ends Feb. 19. 2025.

Arizona Luminaria is a nonprofit digital newsroom dedicated to truly local journalism, community-centered storytelling and investigations that prioritize underserved and underrepresented communities. Our grassroots approach to journalism listens, learns, adapts and unites. We publish local news in English and Spanish free from a paywall that limits who can access vital civic coverage.

Come work with a small and fierce team changing the relationship Arizonans have with local news. Join us as we build a newsroom that values equity, truth, democracy and solutions.

This is a two-year, grant-funded position, supported by the Arizona Local News Foundation through its new Arizona Community Collaborative.

The education solutions reporter shines a light on community members working on systemic challenges and inequities for and with Arizona students, their parents and educators.

You’re an experienced reporter who’s a self-starter and enjoys working independently, as well as collaboratively, to grow your skills under the guidance of great editors.

As an Arizona Luminaria reporter you’ll typically write one or two shorter stories per week, while also working on in-depth projects that serve Arizonans who are deeply engaged in their communities.

You’ll dig into education issues that matter to Arizonans, including inequalities, civics, racial and social justice, as well as school and government policies. You’ll work to better understand best educational practices for schools, students and underserved communities.

This is a full-time job based in Tucson with a focus on Southern Arizona. We all work from home.

We’re a scrappy, supportive team. Your editing coaches include veteran local journalists, and you’ll report to Arizona Luminaria co-founder and Executive Editor Dianna Náñez. She’s an investigative journalist and narrative writer whose story of Indigenous and borderlands communities was part of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning team coverage for explanatory journalism. She’s led workplace strategies to build more equitable and ethical newsrooms for our communities and local journalists.

At Arizona Luminaria, we are building a newsroom and workplace rooted in inclusion and integrity. We value teamwork. We value your voice, career goals and commitment to the privilege of sharing authentic stories from our diverse Arizona communities. We’re seeking teammates who want to work with us to establish anti-racist, anti-discriminatory newsroom cultures and standards.

Application process

Apply by filling out this form by Feb. 19, 2025.

Responsibilities

• Generate people-centered story ideas on education solutions and systemic challenges with a focus on Tucson and Southern Arizona.
• Produce stories in coordination with your editor/coach for Arizona Luminaria websites and newsletters.
• Keep close tabs on local school districts and public records.
• Develop and demonstrate the cultural competence required to cover disparities, injustices and historically marginalized and/or underserved communities.
• Build trust and deep relationships with community members and dedicate time in the field to develop sources, generate ideas and share stories.
• Hone data, research, investigative, interviewing, narrative and social media skills to strengthen and contextualize reporting.
• Some evening and weekend hours to cover meetings and some travel within Arizona are required.

Preferred experience

If you don’t have all of the journalism experiences described below, that’s OK. We want people who question traditions and stereotypes and who contribute creatively and consciously with skills in the following areas:

• More than 4 years of reporting experience.
• Writing community stories with local heart and state or national context that you won’t see anywhere else. These stories help readers take action, hold their elected officials to account and understand complex issues.
• Digging for and clarifying government records, data and public meetings.
• Asking questions that hold government leaders and officials accountable to the people they were elected to serve.
• Recognizing our fault lines as humans and how they affect our reporting and trust relationships with people from all backgrounds.
• Working both collaboratively and independently on short- and long-term reporting.
• Bilingual English/Spanish, or experience speaking/writing news in Spanish with an interest in developing those skills.

Salary and benefits

We’re offering compensation and benefits to build healthy lives, including:

• Salary $42,000-$55,000 depending on experience and specific skills like spoken and/or written Spanish.
• Flexible work hours.
• Paid time off.
• Plus a sabbatical period every two years to relax, reflect and recharge. Reporting takes empathy, passion and focus. A sabbatical is one way Arizona Luminaria recognizes that we’re humans not robots. And we need time off to prevent burnout and feel healthy and happy.
• Healthcare plan.
• Work from home in Tucson.
• Professional development investment.
• Technology and work tools investment.
• Co-publishing opportunities with national news organizations.
• Systems that value ongoing dialogue about what employees want and need to maintain a healthy and equitable workplace culture.

Job Seekers: Help EWA by mentioning that you found this career opportunity on EWA’s website.

Employers: Looking to find the best talent in education reporting and communications? Post your employment opportunities with EWA.