JOURNALISM 392W - Congressman Neal Profile

I’m not quite sure who Richard Neal is.

I know he represents the Springfield area in the United States Congress. I know he has been a grade school teacher in the past, and is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. And I know his history of supporting his constituents, their city, and their various causes, has made him well liked as a politician.

But I don’t think I really know who he is.

Last year I took a class with him: the Journalist and the Politician. Great class. I highly recommend it to anyone looking to go into either field. It gives Journalists an idea of what to expect when dealing with politicians, as well as giving people looking to go into politics an idea of how to handle us pesky journalists.

If there’s one thing I took away from that class, it’s that if you want to make it in either politics or journalism, you have to learn how to, in Neal’s own words, “play the game.”
Neal is a real master of this. To him, playing the game is really about putting on the politician mask, and never taking it off until you absolutely know you’re away from prying eyes. You can see this in both his teaching style, and how he handles himself during an interview.

A couple weeks ago I got to do an interview with Neal over the phone. We talked about Springfield’s Magnet Schools Assistance Program. He and Senator Kerry had worked to get this money to support Springfield’s minority students. This is what he said when I asked him why the investment was personally important to him:

“I think it augments 21st century global communication skills, and I think it emphasizes heavily what the new economy looks like. As a former teacher I think assisting these children … is just a good idea and it should be treated as an investment.”

If that’s not a cookie cutter response taken right out of some speech or press release I don’t know what is. I didn’t ask him for that; I asked him why it was personally important.

I remember getting responses like this in his class. Somebody would ask about how he felt about something, or how he would have reacted in a situation, and the response we would get was always like reading out of a textbook. You couldn’t get the guy to tell how he really felt about anything. Any anecdotes he gave were always about times when he won or did something exemplary as a politician.

Later in the interview I tried to get him to open up again. I asked him how he would like to see the money spent. That’s not even a very prying question. He said:

“I really refrain from that. I think the partnership is based upon the priorities that are determined by local officials, with the understanding that having children that excel is something good for America.”

How patriotic, and how very political.

It’s stuff like this that makes it very difficult for me to figure out who he is. He’s a great politician, and a very informative and interesting professor. But I wish I understood him a little better. I guess it all comes back to playing the game though. He’s better at it than most I think. Certainly better than me.

Here's a link to the audio from my interview with Neal:

http://www.zshare.net/myzshare/my-uploads.php

JOURNALISM 392W - Q & A # 3

Richard Neal is the congressional representative from Springfield, Massachusetts. He and Senator John Kerry recently succeeded in securing nearly 12 million dollars in federal money from the Magnet Schools Assistance Program to go towards Springfield Public Schools. I was able to reach the congressman by phone just as he was landing from a flight to Springfield from D.C. He agreed to do a brief Q & A about the grant.

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about the program first just so I can get some background on it?

A: Well, it's under the magnet schools assistance program, and Springfield's had a long and successful history of effectively utilizing these investments. The department of education at the United States level has worked on this for more than fifteen years, so I think that there's substantial evidence here that this improves opportunities for many of the children that are in the Springfield School system.

Q: And can you tell me why this investment is important to you personally?

A: Because I think it augments 21st century global communication skills, and I think that it emphasizes heavily what the new economy looks like. As a former teacher I think assisting these children in Springfield's public schools is just a good idea and it should be treated as an investment, and that's precisely what we're suggesting.

Q: Why do you think Springfield is the right school district for this kind of investment?

A: Well, I think Springfield represents a great laboratory with which to experiment and I think that this is an opportunity for that experiment; taking these students with advanced skills into the new decade. There is here, I think, an understanding that many of the children who might find themselves disadvantaged, none the less, have ample opportunity based upon the assistance that this magnet school proposal is offering t give them the sort of skills they're going to need down the road.

Q: And do other school districts in Mass. have this sort of funding?

A: I believe that Boston would have the same sort of opportunity, as they've had in the past, but we have done very well here over the last few years, based upon this suggestion that there is a partnership with the federal government that allows our students to learn and to grow.

Q: How do you go about securing this money?

A: Well, there are a variety of ways. We're generally called upon to do a little bit of lobbying behind the scenes including through the grant application. We assist the respective school department officials as they raise questions or have questions, and in the past we've helped them get right to the deadline in making sure that it was packaged and applied for at the right time. Now it's done electronically so that we assist them even at this stage.

Q: Can you comment on any of the initiatives? Do you know about how the schools are going to be using the money?

A: Well there's great flexibility that's built in and I think there are going to be an array of choices for students and their parents according to Dr. Ingram [NOTE: the Superintendent] who has been a terrific and, I think, effective advocate on behalf of these children.

Q: Have you thought about how you personally would like to see the money spent?

A: I mean, I really refrain from that. I think the partnership is based upon the priorities that are determined by local officials, with the understanding that having children that excel is something good for America.

EDITORS NOTE: A magnet school is type of education system which sets up different schools which target different types of learning and have highly specialized courses. For example in Springfield they have one school oriented towards fine arts, and one oriented towards science and technology, among others. Also, the Magnet Schools Assistance Program is designed to help draw minority students into this type of educational environment.

Finally, this interview was part of a spot I wrote for WFCR about the MSAP on Friday the 24th. for the full piece, featuring a clip from the interview, click here