OVER THE OBJECTIONS of advocates who said the changes did not go far enough, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved new regulations Tuesday morning aimed at creating more equity in admissions to vocational high schools. The changes come after years of complaints that vocational schools were shutting out Black and Latino students, […]
Michael Jonas
Michael Jonas works with Bruce in overseeing CommonWealth Beacon coverage and editing the work of reporters. His own reporting has a particular focus on politics, education, and criminal justice reform.
Michael has worked in journalism in Massachusetts since the early 1980s. Before joining the CommonWealth staff in 2001, he was a contributing writer for the magazine for two years. His story on Boston youth outreach workers was selected for a PASS (Prevention for a Safer Society) Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. His CommonWealth work has also won awards from Capitol Beat for state government coverage and from the New England Newspaper & Press Association for work in several areas.
Prior to coming to CommonWealth, for 15 years Michael wrote a weekly column on local politics for the Boston Globe. Michael has also worked in broadcast journalism. In the late 1980s he was a co-producer for "The AIDS Quarterly," a national PBS series produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, and in the early 1990s, he worked as a producer for a weekly news magazine program on WHDH-TV (Ch. 7) in Boston.
Posted inCriminal Justice
For Rollins, it’s full speed ahead
IF ANYONE THOUGHT Rachael Rollins might trim her sails while waiting for word on whether she gets the nod as President Biden’s choice for US attorney for Massachusetts, they clearly haven’t followed the trajectory of her rise into public life and her style once there. Rollins, elected Suffolk County district attorney in 2018, was blunt […]
Posted inEducation
Coalition says proposed voc school admission changes don’t go far enough
PROPOSED CHANGES TO vocational school admission policies, which the state has developed following years of pressure from municipal leaders and advocates, don’t go nearly far enough toward ensuring access to the schools for all students, says a coalition of civil rights, education, and community groups. The Vocational Education Justice Coalition is calling on the state […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Will Mass. follow Connecticut in ending charges for prisoner phone calls?
IF PEER PRESSURE is a thing among state legislatures, Massachusetts may soon be feeling some heat from its next-door neighbor. Yesterday, Gov. Ned Lamont signed legislation making Connecticut the first state in the country to make phone calls free for incarcerated people and their loved ones. While internet technology has made it possible to chat […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
What happened to Mikayla Miller?
THE DEATH IN April of 16-year-old Hopkinton resident Mikayla Miller has prompted an outpouring of sorrow and sympathy. It has also led to charges that what happened to the African American teen may be part of a broader pattern of deaths of black Americans in which the criminal justice system holds back crucial information or […]
Posted inPolitics
Mass. GOP shootout in a lifeboat continues
LOU MURRAY, the chairman of the Ward 20 Republican Committee in Boston’s West Roxbury neighborhood, gets it at least partially right in an op-ed in today’s Boston Herald when he says Massachusetts Republican Party chairman Jim Lyons has become a “pariah.” Murray, who is billed as having served as a “national Catholic adviser to Donald […]
Posted inEconomy
Study finds big payoff for community college
WITH A NATIONAL debate underway over whether the federal government should guarantee free community college for all Americans, a new study of Massachusetts students provides strong evidence of just how valuable two-year colleges can be to students’ future employment and earnings. Those graduating with a two-year associate’s degree from Massachusetts community colleges had earnings that […]
Posted inEducation
Withholding Boston School Committee texts backfires
THE COVER-UP is always worse than the crime. And so it is that Boston school officials find themselves dealing with the explosive fallout of a contentious school committee meeting almost eight months after the fact, just as the city prepares to re-engage with the same issue that prompted the heated debate. The October 21 meeting, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Capping months of drama, Janey fires White
FIRST CAME THE “blue wall of silence.” Then came the very voluble airing of family laundry, an often cringe-inducing exchange of charges and counter-charges of domestic abuse and marital infidelity that seemed more like fodder for a bottom-feeding reality TV show than debate over leadership of the nation’s oldest police department. With that, Dennis White’s […]
Posted inPolitics
In progressive field, Essaibi George stands out
IN THE WORLD of Twitter and activist Boston, the unfolding contest for mayor looks like a battle to be crowned the undisputed progressive champion ready to lead the city in a new direction. In the world of early polls of the electorate, an imperfect yet probably much better snapshot of where the race actually stands, […]