ALL EYES IN the higher education world are on the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule any day on whether universities can use race as a factor in admissions […]
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
Debating state takeover of school districts
WHETHER STATE LEADERS will consider unwinding some of the key pillars of education reform in Massachusetts is far from certain. What is clear is that critics of the state’s school […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice, Media
Rollins wheeled and dealed with the Globe, Herald
SIPPING CHABLIS WITH Jill Biden, it turns out, was the least of Rachael Rollins’s transgressions. Ever since reports last summer that Rollins attended a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at an […]
Posted inPolitics
Black redistricting plaintiff doesn’t mind ruffling feathers
THE LAWSUIT CHALLENGING Boston’s city council redistricting map has often been portrayed as a showdown pitting the council’s four White, more moderate members, who objected to its boundaries, against its […]
Posted inEconomy
New study calls WooSox stadium a bad deal for Worcester
THE WOOSOX may have hit a home run with huge attendance numbers at their new home in Worcester, but a study says the city has whiffed when it comes to shelling […]
Posted inEducation
Senator to push voc school admission changes through budget amendment
SAYING HE’S FRUSTRATED by state inaction over ongoing enrollment inequities from admissions policies at vocational high schools, state Sen. John Cronin has filed an amendment to the Senate budget that […]
Posted inPolitics
Has party imbalance broken democracy in Mass.?
THE STATE OF the two political parties in Massachusetts could not look more different. We are perhaps the bluest of blue states, with Democrats now holding virtually every elected position […]
Posted inHousing, State Government
Boston rent control plan on the ropes
WHAT DO YOU call the opposite of a trial balloon? A deep-six signal? Whatever the term for it, it sure looks like legislative leaders are giving it some play when […]
Posted inEducation
With dueling reports, battle lines form over MCAS
YOU DON’T EXACTLY need to ace reading comprehension on the MCAS to understand where a new education coalition is going with the report it issued this week on the state’s […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Poll finds big safety concerns among Boston public school parents
AMID GROWING CONCERNS over violence in Boston schools, a new poll finds that more than two-thirds of parents of Boston Public Schools students are worried about their children’s safety in school […]
Posted inEducation
$10m donation to Holyoke Community College sets record, challenges norms
TO PEG AND GARY WENDLANDT, it’s a simple matter of doing good after doing well. But in the world of higher education philanthropy, last week’s announcement that the couple are […]
Posted inPolitics
In Boston race for open state rep seat, a field of 1
IT’S BECOME A dismal, recurring storyline underscoring the state’s political torpor: Massachusetts is among the least competitive states in the country when it comes to elections for state legislative seats. […]
Posted inEducation
Polls apart on teacher strike issue
LEGALIZING TEACHER STRIKES in Massachusetts has become a contentious topic following a spate of illegal walkouts in local districts and a push by the state’s teachers unions to change state law […]
Posted inRace/Racism
Mel King remembered as ‘humble and generous humanist’ for justice
MEL KING was remembered Tuesday as a champion for justice who had a global vision of a better world that was shaped profoundly by the very local wrongs he saw […]
Posted inEconomy
Greater Boston’s Black population becoming more diverse, dispersed
WHEN THE PRESIDENT of Cape Verde visited Massachusetts earlier this week, after meeting with Gov. Maura Healey at the State House, his big public appearance didn’t come in Boston but at […]
Posted inPolitics
For Ed Flynn, awkward roles of race healer and redistricting foe
WHEN WILLIAM FAULKNER famously observed that “the past is never dead, it isn’t even past,” he wasn’t referring to Boston’s troubled history on matters of race – but he might as […]
Posted inPolitics
Mel King: A singular Boston sensation
MEL KING looms as the iconic figure above all others of Black Boston’s last 50 years, but it’s not because he fit any archetypal picture of an outspoken activist or […]
Posted inPolitics, State Government
Mariano to DiZoglio: pound sand
IN A SHARPLY WORDED letter, Speaker Ron Mariano told state Auditor Diana DiZoglio her plan to audit the House of Representatives is “entirely without legal support or precedent” and that […]
Posted inEducation
Union urges teachers and students to ‘opt out’ of MCAS
THE DEBATE OVER standardized testing has sometimes come to feel like a battle of biblical proportions, so perhaps Deb McCarthy’s word choice is no accident. “In the beginning, I was […]
Posted inGovernment
Arroyo wants to ban sale of ‘nips’ in Boston
IT COULD BE the shot ban heard ‘round the state. Fed up with thousands of tiny booze bottles littering his district, and concerned about the public health impact of a product […]
Posted inTransportation
Will Healey go inside or outside for State Police and MBTA hires?
IF LEADERSHIP IS key to righting a listing state agency, nothing Gov. Maura Healey does in the coming weeks may be as important as her selection of new leaders to […]
Posted inEducation
Healey retaining Craven as education board chair
GOV. MAURA HEALEY, who vowed last year in her campaign launch to “continue with what’s working and fix what’s not” if elected, has decided the existing leadership of the state […]
Posted inTransportation
Healey’s competitiveness mantra collides with T reality
LIKE A WELL-OILED messaging machine, Maura Healey has had a one-word mantra to frame her early days as governor: competitiveness. It’s become her version of the stern advice given in […]
Posted inEducation
Reading the tea leaves on new education secretary’s charter vote
IN THE ENDLESS debate over charter schools, there is often a stark line dividing people into the pro-charter or anti-charter camp. Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler insists he occupies different ground. […]