Committee advances bill to fund journalism fellowships for public-college graduates

The Higher Education Employment Advancement Committee voted to send HB 5159, an act to fund journalism fellowships for graduates of public institutions of higher education, to the Appropriations Committee with JFS language that would have the Office of Policy and Management (OPM) contract with a nonprofit student journalism collaborative to administer the program.

Supporters said the program would help address a shortage of local journalists. “I thought we had a great public hearing last week and heard some valuable perspectives from folks who teach journalism students, have been journalism students, and our local news organizations about the value of this,” Representative Farrar said during discussion.

Under the substitute language described in committee, OPM would establish a memorandum of understanding with a student journalism collaborative that has ties to multiple universities and local outlets; that nonprofit would select fellowship recipients rather than state staff directly deciding where funds go. Committee members said the fellowships are expected to be yearlong and that an illustrative per‑fellow amount discussed in the hearing was about $10,000, with a contemplated $120,000 to support 12 fellows in a year, though the bill itself does not specify an exact per‑fellow amount.

Opponents questioned whether it is appropriate for state government to fund journalism, even indirectly through a nonprofit. “I’m just not sure it’s the place for government to be funding journalism,” Representative Branca said, saying she would not support the bill in its current form. Other members compared the proposal to state investments in other workforce pipelines such as student teaching or apprenticeships and said the nonprofit intermediary reduces the risk of direct state engagement with news outlets.

The committee approved a friendly amendment to delete language affiliating the named student journalism collaborative with Southern Connecticut State University after reviewers concluded that the collaborative is affiliated with multiple public and private universities. The clerk called the roll to send HB 5159 (LCO 2010) JFS to Appropriations; several members recorded yes or no on the record and the chair announced votes would be held open until 05:30 for members who could not vote immediately.

The bill will move to the Appropriations Committee for further consideration; committee members who opposed the measure signaled they may pursue alternate models such as tax credits or apprenticeship-style incentives for news outlets.