About the News Organization: The Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting is an independent, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization located in Augusta, Maine. It was founded in 2009 by veteran journalists John Christie and Naomi Schallit to help offset some of the deeper journalism that was quickly evaporating as Maine newspapers slashed staffs. The news organization produces investigative and enterprise journalism on politics, healthcare, the environment and education, and publishes Pine Tree Watch.
About the Position: This Report for America corps member covers state politics and education throughout Maine. For state politics, the reporter develops a statehouse beat for the Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting. This includes day-to-day coverage of important issues in Augusta, as well as a year-long enterprise series looking at divisiveness in Maine, in particular, how the state transitions from eight years of leadership under Gov. Paul LePage. Education is a different beat, focused on scouring the state and examining how education leadership failures are impacting individual towns and schools. This beat also has a data focus, examining why Maine is below national averages in reading and mathematics. There is a large opportunity for a year-long investigative project looking at the state of a failed education system.