The Baltimore Banner is a 2025 Pulitzer Prize finalist in local reporting for a sweeping investigation that found unreliable public transit makes it nearly impossible for city students to get to school on time, making access to a car a key factor in students’ academic success.
The recognition follows The Banner’s 2025 Pulitzer Prize win in local reporting for its investigative series on Baltimore’s opioid crisis and comes less than four years after the newsroom launched.
The project for this year’s honor was reported by education reporter Liz Bowie and data editors Greg Morton and Ryan Little, with graphics and interactives by senior digital visualization reporter Allan James Vestal. The series examined how long, unpredictable commutes affect as many as 25,000 Baltimore City students. Through a first-of-its-kind data analysis, the reporting mapped thousands of student trips and tracked Maryland Transit Administration buses in real time, showing that transportation barriers undermine school choice, contribute to chronic absenteeism and create inequities when it comes to access to reliable transportation.
“These groundbreaking stories took something that all Baltimoreans instinctively knew and proved it with novel data reporting: that Baltimore schools had failed to give all kids the best chance at success because of the district’s reliance on a flawed public transit system,” said Audrey Cooper, editor-in-chief of The Banner. “And then it went even further to show that real solutions exist and are within reach. We’ve been overwhelmed at the response from our industry peers but especially gratified to see the community response, showing yet again that quality journalism can unite communities around critical issues.”
The nearly three-year project included the support of education editor Rachel Cieri Mull, visuals editor Ariel Zambelich and photographer Kaitlin Newman, with contributions from journalists across The Banner’s newsroom. The series combined extensive public records requests, original data engineering and on-the-ground reporting involving students, families, educators and transit officials. It also explored potential solutions — challenging assumptions about school transportation in Baltimore and elevating the issue among city and state leaders.
“We took a lot of time and care to make sure we were able to go beyond the anecdotal and prove that systemic issues, and not just personal choices, have a tremendous impact on student outcomes,” Morton said. “From the beginning it was important to us to prove that the transportation issue was not just a problem for some students, but a failure that has imposed a disproportionate burden on the kids with the least.”
Read More
In addition to being a 2025 Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Banner has received the following awards for the project:
- The Philip Meyer Journalism Award from Investigative Reporters and Editors, which recognizes the best use of social science research methods in journalism
- The Punch Sulzberger Prize for Innovation in Journalism from The Poynter Institute
- A National Headliner Award for online investigative reporting
The Pulitzer Prize has honored excellence in journalism and the arts since 1917. Roughly 1,100 entries are submitted each year for consideration in 15 journalism categories.
Read the series:
The Problem • Part I
Transit nightmare: Thousands of Baltimore kids can’t get to school on time
The Problem • Part II
It’s not just late buses: Baltimore kids face serious safety risks
Solutions • Part II
School buses for every Baltimore student seemed impossible — until now
Comments
Welcome to The Banner's subscriber-only commenting community. Please review our community guidelines.