Two sharply contrasting views of the future of journalism are on full display this month.

The State of Kansas declared journalism dead, while New York City sees a bright future for an ever-adaptive media.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reported Sept. 9 that the Sunflower State's Dept. of Education has pulled funding for journalism programs at the high school level. Decision-makers consider journalism a dying business, not worthy of money for vocational programs.

Kathy Toelkes, spokesperson for the Education Dept., says Kansas bureaucrats studied labor market data and determined that journalism has scant job growth. Courses are to be folded into English programs and many student newspapers and yearbooks will be iced.

There is no sign of a media deathwatch at the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism, which opens a $10M media incubator next month. The two-year program is to feature the nation’s first masters program in “entrepreneurial journalism.”

Super-blogger Jeff Jarvis is head of the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism. He sees a bright future for journalism, spurred by development of new business models for news.

CUNY Grad J-School dean Stephen Shepard, former editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek, envisions the Center doing for journalism what Stanford and MIT do for technology.

Good luck to the Tow-Knight Center in nurturing journalism to meet the exploding demand for information and the need to keep a close check on government. Prove those misguided Jayhawks wrong.