THE OUTER REACHES of Cape Cod may be best known for the unspoiled beauty of the Cape Cod National Seashore and the freewheeling ways of Provincetown tea dances, but Sarah […]
Michael Jonas
Michael Jonas works with Laura 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.
Posted inGambling
A loud lament over the latest gambling embrace by state leaders
THERE WERE WHOOPS AND HOLLERS from DraftKings, the state’s casinos, and lawmakers as the state legalized sports betting earlier this month. For Les Bernal, it was not a moment to […]
Posted inEducation
State education board raises MCAS graduation requirements
MASSACHUSETTS HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS will soon have to clear a higher bar on the 10th grade MCAS in order to graduate. The state board of education approved changes on Monday […]
Posted inEducation
Boston is hemorrhaging school-aged kids
IT’S ONLY A FEW WEEKS until students head back to school. In Boston, if this year is like last year, and like many others before that, there will be fewer […]
Posted inPolitics, State Government
A liberal showdown in Brookline
IN MICHAEL DUKAKIS’S hometown, a place that delivered 88 percent of its vote to Joe Biden two years ago, it’s not a question of whether to elect a left-leaning Democrat […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Tompkins challenger says he shouldn’t moderate DA debate
IT’S AN UNUSUAL setting for a candidate forum, but one with an audience that has a vested interest in the policies of the office being sought. The two candidates vying […]
Posted inPolitics, State Government
3 Democrats make the case for being Maura Healey’s No. 2
JIM BRAUDE BEGAN Tuesday evening’s GBH debate among the three Democrats running for lieutenant governor by asking a standard opening question to candidates: Why are you running for this office? […]
Posted inPolitics
In AG debate, Dems play their hands
SHANNON LISS-RIORDAN is the only practicing lawyer who has won settlements for working people. Andrea Campbell brings a “lived experience” to the issues that her rivals don’t and now has […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Ex-senator Tran sues Healey over criminal charges of stealing a constituent’s gun
FORMER STATE SENATOR Dean Tran, who was indicted earlier this month on charges that he stole a gun from an elderly constituent, filed suit in federal court on Wednesday against […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Baker’s dangerousness bill divides DA candidates
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER’S effort to bolster the state law allowing defendants to be held before trial has been shelved for now by lawmakers, who call it an unwarranted overreach, but […]
Posted inHealth Care
Lawmakers reach agreement on abortion legislation
WITH THE CLOCK ticking down on the Legislature’s two-year session, House and Senate leaders announced on Monday that negotiators have reached agreement between the two branches on a bill to […]
Posted inEducation
Could looming MCAS change be last gasp for ed reform era?
THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION seems poised to raise the passing score needed on the high-stakes 10th grade MCAS to graduate from high school. It probably ought to hurry if […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Fitchburg aims to drive back to the future
EARLY ON A RECENT Thursday morning, Fitchburg Mayor Stephen DiNatale climbed into the passenger seat of a 1914 Model T and took a ride down Main Street into the city’s […]
Posted inEducation
Wu walked fine line in superintendent pick
IT’S A FRAUGHT TIME for the Boston Public Schools – and not just because of the recent pressure from state officials, who held the threat of receivership over the system […]
Posted inEducation
Should we raise the passing bar for MCAS?
IT HAS STOOD for two decades as the centerpiece of the state’s embrace of the standards and accountability movement in education policy. Since 2003, public school students have been required […]
Posted inEconomy
Help for Boston taxi owners?
TAXI OWNERS HAVE been hit with a one-two punch in recent years. First, the explosion of the Uber and Lyft rideshare apps proved devastating to their business. The pandemic added […]
Posted inThe Download
In Mass., vocational success – and admissions debate
THE STATE’S VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL schools have long stood as one of the unheralded success stories of the education reform efforts begun in the early 1990s. A new book, published by Pioneer […]
Posted inEducation
In Mass., vocational success – and admissions debate
THE STATE’S VOCATIONAL-TECHNICAL schools have long stood as one of the unheralded success stories of the education reform efforts begun in the early 1990s. A new book, published by Pioneer […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Will San Francisco DA recall reverberate here?
ON SUNDAY, it was Steph Curry’s relentless rain of 3s that reverberated 3,000 miles away in Boston. The question this morning is whether the moves made on Tuesday by San […]
Posted inPolitics
A balancing act from front-runner Healey
MAURA HEALEY, who launched her campaign for governor in January with a modulated message vowing to continue what’s working and change what isn’t, swept the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s convention endorsement, […]
Posted inEconomy
For Dems, a ballot question brouhaha
THERE WILL BE no table after all at the Democratic State Convention promoting ride-share companies’ position on a hotly contested November ballot question. A brewing intra-party battle over plans by […]
Posted inEducation
Boston submits school improvement proposal to state
IN RESPONSE TO a scathing state review documenting “entrenched dysfunction” in the Boston Public Schools, the city submitted a proposal Wednesday night to state education officials that vows to make changes […]
Posted inEducation
For Boston schools, a reckoning with no simple answers
THINK OF DANIELLE MILLER and Mary Tamer as the rock and hard place between which state and city leaders sit as they try to figure out a plan for the […]
Posted inEducation
Riley looking for pact with Boston, not receivership
STATE EDUCATION COMMISSIONER Jeff Riley said the Boston Public Schools face a “myriad of problems,” from special education and English language learner services in disarray to data systems reporting inaccurate […]