The San Antonio Report is doubling its local coverage of education issues by adding its first-ever higher education reporter to the team.
Danya Pérez, a bicultural and bilingual reporter from El Paso, will join the Report as its inaugural higher education reporter later this month.
Alongside K-12 education reporter Xochilt Garcia, whose impactful coverage has served local readers well since she joined the San Antonio Report newsroom in February, the addition of Pérez doubles our local newsroom’s ability to cover the education issues that matter most to San Antonio.
The new position was made possible by a grant from education reporting nonprofit Open Campus as well as generous support from local donors, including a two-week crowdfunding campaign in fall 2024.
San Antonio is home to a diverse and dynamic higher education landscape, serving a student population exceeding 120,000 across public and private universities, as well as a robust community college district.
The Report’s higher education beat will examine the critical role that higher ed plays in the life and health of Bexar County, as well as hold institutions accountable with well-reported news coverage.
The San Antonio Report’s higher education reporter joins a cohort of Open Campus reporters in partner newsrooms across the state, including at The Texas Tribune, El Paso Matters and the Fort Worth Report.
“As a local nonprofit news organization, one of our most significant challenges is delivering as much coverage of essential San Antonio stories as our community deserves with a small team,” San Antonio Report publisher Angie Mock said Friday. “This capacity-building role is going to be game-changing for our education coverage.
“We couldn’t be more grateful to Open Campus and all of the readers and local donors who contributed to our crowdfunding campaign. Now, we’re thrilled to be able to deliver on the promise of doubling our impact with more education coverage in San Antonio.”
In previous roles, Pérez covered education for The Monitor newspaper in the Rio Grande Valley and at the San Antonio Express-News. Most recently, she was a diverse communities reporter for the Houston Landing.
Garcia joined the Report from Texas A&M-San Antonio, where she was the editor in chief of The Mesquite, a student-run news site, and an intern at the Boerne Star.
Over the past three months, Garcia has covered everything from school vouchers and belated school performance ratings to staffing shortages, including the difficulty of retaining special education teachers and a state incentive program based on “effectiveness.”
She’s also kept readers informed on all the education-related races on the municipal election ballot.
