DONALD TRUMP WAS elected president, upending the expectations set by virtually every poll going into Tuesday’s election. He won despite alienating and attacking everyone from Hispanics to Gold Star families, […]
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 inEducation
Suburbs and the charter school question
HINGHAM DOES NOT look much like the sort of place where a charter school is likely to pop up. While charters schools in Massachusetts are concentrated in lower-income urban communities with struggling district schools […]
Posted inEducation, The Back Story
Malden charter seeks damages from departing teacher
ONE MIGHT HAVE expected Mystic Valley Regional Charter School to throw Matt Kowalski a goodbye party after seven years as a dedicated social studies teacher at the Malden school. Instead, […]
Posted inEducation
Arne Duncan calls charter schools part of the Mass. solution
WADING INTO A battle that has become increasingly contentious and has divided Democrats like no other domestic policy issue, President Obama’s longtime education secretary, Arne Duncan, said allowing more charter […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Gants launches study of racial disparities in incarceration
THE STATE MUST confront racial disparities in imprisonment rates and move to “reimagine” a flawed criminal justice system to focus less on incarceration and more on lowering recidivism, Supreme Judicial […]
Posted inHealth Care
Improving health outcomes through social services
WHAT IF THE answer to ever-rising health care costs doesn’t lie in figuring out better ways to deliver medical care, but in things like ensuring access to good nutrition, adequate […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Crime and punishment
Nobody thinks teenagers should be carrying guns on the streets of Boston. Jail may be the best—or only—way to deal with many of those carrying and shooting guns there. But was it the right thing to do in this case?
Posted inEducation, The Back Story
The charter funding debate
IN THE HIGH-STAKES battle over charter school expansion, the impact of charters on school finances has come front and center. Supporters of Question 2, which would allow up to 12 […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Judge says body camera pilot can move forward
A JUDGE HAS sided with Boston Police Commissioner William Evans and ruled that he has authority to assign officers to a body-worn camera pilot project over the objections of the […]
Posted inPolitics
A debate with a twist
This story has been updated to reflect correct PAC spending by the Massachusetts Teachers Association. KICKING OFF THE Labor Day weekend will be a debate Friday between combatants in a […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Warren as school choice champion
WHEN ASKED ON Thursday about the November ballot question to raise the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts, Sen. Elizabeth Warren sounded a note of caution about the initiative. “You […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Do police body cameras work?
THERE IS GROWING pressure across the country to equip police officers with body-worn cameras, driven by a belief that the technology will reduce unwarranted use of force by police and […]
Posted inPolitics
Weld: We’re in it to win
BILL WELD, WHO seemed to sign on as the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential candidate less than three months ago as a bit of a lark, now says the ticket is […]
Posted inEducation
Democrats’ ed reform pivot
LESS THAN TWO weeks before they will anoint Hillary Clinton as the party’s new standard-bearer, Democrats are putting the finishing touches on a party platform that signals a big shift […]
Posted inPolitics
A nation divided
ALAN WOLFE HAS had a long interest in American democracy and in Americans’ attitudes toward it and toward issues related to religion and morality. But the longtime sociology professor at […]
Posted inPolitics
To serve and elect
Photograph by Frank Curran The organization you founded, New Politics, is committed to finding and helping elect candidates for office who have backgrounds in the military or civilian service […]
Posted inEducation
Southbridge schools get fresh start
THE NEWS WAS not unexpected when the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted in January to put the Southbridge schools into receivership. The small central Massachusetts district of […]
Posted inBallot Questions, Education
Anti-Common Core question tossed off ballot
DERAILING EFFORTS TO repeal use of the Common Core education standards in Massachusetts schools, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that a question that would have jettisoned the curriculum frameworks cannot […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, The Back Story
Weld’s views ‘developing’ on criminal justice reform
WHEN HE RAN for governor in Massachusetts 26 years ago, Republican Bill Weld cut a more moderate profile on many social issues than his Democratic opponent, John Silber – a […]
Posted inEducation
Report: State needs to boost degree production
IT’S THE LONG-RUNNING saga of the Massachusetts economy that’s been told repeatedly as a cautionary tale: Massachusetts lives by its wits — and lives well by them — but only […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Harshbarger says democracy needs a shot in the arm
SCOTT HARSHBARGER MAY have the right diagnosis, but it’s less clear that he’s landed on the cure. The former attorney general and one-time Democratic nominee for governor says democracy is […]
Posted inEducation, The Back Story
The ‘third way’ in education
POLARIZATION AND TRENCH WARFARE, the partisan watchwords these days in Washington, have also come to define education debates. In Massachusetts, as much as $30 million could be spent between now […]
Posted inEducation
Fiery teachers union president wins re-election
A DIVIDED MASSACHUSETTS TEACHERS ASSOCIATION re-elected its firebrand president, Barbara Madeloni, at the organization’s annual meeting on Saturday, ensuring a continuation of the sharp critique of education reform efforts from the […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Baker’s Common Core caution
IT’S NOT JUST the presidential election that Gov. Charlie Baker plans to sit out. Baker says he is also staying out of a fight much closer to home: A looming […]