Great advice from a reader

“I hope this arms you with information and hope.”   [Mother Jones]( MoJo Reader, I didn’t plan on sending you this Friday afternoon email, but our December fundraising drive got off to a concerningly slow start, and I need to try righting the ship before next week rolls around. I have just the story, a big package of stories, and some advice from a reader that I think might do the trick. Because this is about journalism—clearly demonstrating the value of Mother Jones’ journalism so we can [raise the $350,000 in donations]( we need this month. It’s [unfathomably]( [hard]( in the news business right now, and [hitting that number]( isn’t just some “wouldn’t it be nice to have” goal for us—our threadbare budget relies on it come January. But I’m going to follow the advice of a reader who recently told us about how we can better go about asking you to [support our work](, which seems apt right now: “The cause is righteous and does not need sky-is-falling rhetoric. You folks do great work. Let the work stand on its own.” I’ll also let Sam Van Pykeren, a rising-star digital producer on the editorial team (and fantastic human—just look at [the video he did for us]( last year!) show you the work. Well, after [an earnest ask from me to consider supporting Mother Jones with a year-end gift]( if there’s any way you can right now. We need it. On Tuesday, we published an [ambitious reporting project]( that was months in the making, consisting of several deeply reported stories all looking at one, often overlooked, issue: How the US education system chronically fails students with disabilities. Here’s Sam summarizing it in [a post]( that caught my attention and seemed worth sharing (slightly edited to work here):   It's been nearly 50 years since the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) passed, guaranteeing “free appropriate public education” to disabled students. But that promise remains unfulfilled—and the result has been an education system for disabled students steeped in neglect, failure, and abuse. Did you know that over one-third of these students don’t graduate high school? Or that the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has more than 2,500 open investigations into complaints from parents of children with disabilities—some being unresolved for over a decade? This collection of stories examines these issues and points to solutions that are within reach. You can find them all in [our introductory essay](. But I am also going to detail them below. 1: [How did we end up]( with a system that teachers, students, parents, and state and federal governments have declared to be broken? It turns out public dollars are flowing to private companies that turn a hefty profit while failing and even abusing students. 2: [Meet Kary](, who is fighting for her son in the country's largest school system while navigating a language barrier. 3: [As a former teacher himself](, Anthony Conwright has had a frontline look at how programs designed to help kids can instead facilitate the segregation of Black students, especially boys. 4: [Hawaii]( is the only state in the country that operates as a single school district. And over the last few years, Hawaii has harnessed this advantage. 5: [Amid skyrocketing autism rates](, a nationwide shortage of mental health professionals who specialize in autism, and the lingering effects of pandemic isolation, Cheryl and Gary are among a growing number of parents eager to try out robot-assisted therapy or instruction. Does it work? 6: [Lastly, we asked YOU]( about your experiences with the system. In particular, Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). If this was unfamiliar, I hope you learned something new. If it's all too familiar, I hope this arms you with information and hope. But most of all, I hope you engage and share [this amazing project](. My colleagues put their hearts and souls into every bit of it, and as you can see, it's quite an impressive collection. If you made it this far, thank you, as always, for choosing to be a part of our work and mission.   That’s so great. And I hope the reader who told us to let the work stand on its own when [asking for the donations we need]( was onto something because after a lackluster start to this fundraising push, I need to know it’s not going to become a trend that could mean coming up way short on our goal. [Please help this afternoon or weekend if you can](. Of course, in-depth reporting like the education package we just published costs money. Of course, spending months on something that’s not dominating the headlines isn’t incentivized in today’s media landscape. Of course, this is a story that needs to be told because doing so can improve people’s lives. Of course, the only way we can tackle ambitious projects like this is because we’re [funded]( primarily by a community of readers. And I’ll end with the sentence I loved most from Sam’s write-up: “If this was unfamiliar, I hope you learned something new. If it's all too familiar, I hope this arms you with information and hope.” That’s such a great way to think about our work, and I sincerely hope you’ll [pitch in with a year-end gift]( if you can afford to right now. We really need to see a strong response from this one. If you can’t give right now, which I know is the case for many of you, you can help out by sharing our [education reporting package]( per Sam’s heartfelt request. Onward, and here’s to a restful and strong fundraising weekend. [Monika Bauerlein, CEO] Monika Bauerlein, CEO Mother Jones [Donate](   [Mother Jones]( [Donate]( [Donate Monthly]( [Subscribe]( This message was sent to {EMAIL}. To change the messages you receive from us, you can [edit your email preferences]( or [unsubscribe from all mailings.]( For advertising opportunities see our online [media kit.]( Were you forwarded this email? [Sign up for Mother Jones' newsletters today.]( [www.MotherJones.com]( PO Box 8539, Big Sandy, TX 75755