WITH SPRING COMES the annual ritual of MCAS testing in Massachusetts schools. It’s how we gauge the performance of individual students as well as schools and districts. The assessment of basic skills in math, English, and, more recently, science offers a snapshot of academic achievement levels, and it is the central measure used in the […]
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 inEducation
Riley throws in towel on New Bedford charter plan
FOUR MONTHS AFTER he unveiled a novel proposal for a New Bedford charter school billed as a way to ease the acrimony that has plagued the state’s education sector, Massachusetts education commissioner Jeff Riley pulled the plug on the plan, which had only seemed to trigger a fresh round of the warring he sought to […]
Posted inEducation
New Bedford charter legislation delayed again
SEN. PAT JEHLEN of Somerville, an outspoken charter school critic, threw a procedural roadblock in front of a New Bedford home rule petition to advance a novel charter school plan developed by state education officials, casting further doubt on prospects for the proposal, which the state’s education commissioner said had to be approved by the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
O’Keefe jumps jurisdictions with charges against Rollins
THE STATE’S DISTRICT ATTORNEYS are generally in the business of bringing charges against alleged criminal offenders, not against each other. But Cape and Islands DA Michael O’Keefe’s op-ed in yesterday’s Boston Globe amounted to a full-on indictment of fellow DA Rachael Rollins, who was elected Suffolk County’s top prosecutor last fall. O’Keefe unloads on a […]
Posted inEducation
New Bedford charter school plan on the ropes
A PLAN TOUTED by state education leaders as a breakthrough compromise aimed at healing the rift between district and charter schools has instead inflamed passions on Beacon Hill where the proposal is faltering and has reignited one of the state’s most enduring education battles. The plan would put in place a novel structure for a […]
Posted inEducation
In Newton, the everyday version of “Varsity Blues” scandal
NEVER MIND BRIBING the college tennis coach and all its potential downsides — like a felony conviction and jail time. It turns out going to Newton North High School also sets up students for an extra edge in the college admission race, with the added bonus of being perfectly legal. There were plenty of jaw-dropping […]
Posted inEducation
‘Promise Act’ ed bill would be boon for Boston
WHEN BOSTON MAYOR Mayor Marty Walsh testified in late March on behalf of a bill to revamp the state’s 26-year-old education funding formula, he called it “a solution that will finally take politics out of the conversation.” But as underscored by plans for a big State House rally on Thursday to push for more state […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Kraft to lawyers: Do your job
WHEN IT COMES TO his involvement with the Orchids of Asia Day Spa, it looks like Robert Kraft is going to get off again. With the best legal defense money can buy, the billionaire owner of the New England Patriots brought a sledgehammer to the pesky fly that was the local state prosecutors’ operation and […]
Posted inEducation
Teachers union, residents sue to block New Bedford charter school plan
A PLAN PUT forward by state education commissioner Jeff Riley as a compromise aimed at healing a rift over charter schools in New Bedford is instead drawing the wrath of the state’s largest teacher union, which has filed a lawsuit to block a deal it calls an “extortionate proposal” and “strong-armed attempt” to undermine the […]
Posted inEducation
Mayors say they’ll sue over education aid if Beacon Hill doesn’t act
LEADERS ON BEACON HILL, who say they are committed this year to revamping the state’s 26-year-old education funding formula, got an extra nudge from a group of municipal leaders who say they’re prepared to file a lawsuit to force more state funding for schools if lawmakers don’t act. At a briefing in a downtown Boston […]