If the parent pays for the service, the typical story on the provider is generally positive. If the taxpayer decides to foot the bill when a public school is in need of improvement, the reporter generally casts the provider in a negative light and the public school as a victim.

Same program, same company, with the service often provided at a lower cost.

In either case, the story should be about results.

Business reporters generally focus on a firm's performance. Why not education reporters? Yes, public education is a political story; yet it is also about what works, and whether the taxpayer is getting value for investment in students' futures.

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Wendy Barber has 18 years of teaching experience and six years as a school administrator under her belt. After leaving the public-school system last year, she decided to open Kumon Math and Reading Center, an after-school education program for students pre-Kindergarten through college.

"It really bothered me to see children struggling," she said of her time as a teacher at Pineview and Bond elementary schools and as assistant principal at Pineview. "I came across information for the program, and it sounded really good to me. It sounded like it was something children could benefit from."…

David Zhang's son, Jason, 4, is working on word identification with flash cards."He loves reading those cards…" Zhang said he had heard great things about Kumon from his sister in New Jersey, who sends her two daughters to Kumon. He so desperately wanted to enroll Jason that he was planning to take him to the Kumon in Panama City until he learned that a Tallahassee location just opened.

Julia Thompson, Tallahassee Democrat, April 9.