Read the article here.

This news article was written by Shauneen Miranda and published on Civil Beat. It goes over a report found by a government watchdog that shows the U.S. Department of Education used millions of taxpayer dollars attempting to shut down or remove part of its Office for Civil Rights. According to the report, between $28.5 million and $38 million was spent paying salaries and benefits to hundreds of Office for Civil Rights employees who were put on paid administrative leave during a reduction-in-force effort in 2025.

These employees are responsible for investigating civil rights and discrimination complaints form students and families. While they were not working during this time, there was a large backlog of complaints that grew and many cases were dismissed. The department later changed its decision and brought the employees back, but the government watchdog criticized the department for failing to clearly explain the costs of its actions. Lawmakers and labor leaders called the spending wasteful and harmful to students civil rights protections.

This article can serve as a mentor text because it meets a good number of newsworthiness elements, specifically highlighting timeliness, human interest, and conflict. This article’s structure follows the inverted pyramid by placing the most important information in the opening paragraph, including the 5W’s and H. The reporter did a good job of doing both boots-on-the-ground reporting and butt-journalism because the have official government data alongside direct quotes form lawmakers, union leaders, and department officials. Overall, this is a good mentor article because I can see how the reporter incorporated multiple perspectives while maintaining a factual and objective tone in their writing.