Michael Jonas Executive Editor, CommonWealth Beacon

Michael Jonas works with editor Bruce Mohl 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.

ARTICLES By Michael Jonas

Walsh calls for big boost in school spending

Commits $100 million in anticipation of new state aid

BUOYED BY FLUSH city coffers and a new law promising more state education aid down the road, Mayor Marty Walsh said he will commit $100 million in new annual city spending to the Boston Public Schools. The announcement came during Walsh’s annual State of the City speech, delivered Tuesday night at Symphony Hall, and marks

With education bill-signing, cheers and challenges

State now must maintain funding and ensure it’s well spent

AFTER YEARS OF false starts and Beacon Hill standoffs on a growing funding crisis that has seen school districts shed hundreds of teachers and pare back vital curriculum offerings to balance budgets, Gov. Charlie Baker signed landmark legislation on Tuesday committing the state to $1.5 billion in new aid to Massachusetts schools.  There was a

Tackling traffic, fixing the T, and saving the planet

Innovation economy attempting to take on the challenge

THE TRANSPORTATION CHALLENGES facing the Boston region have come to feel like an existential threat on more than one level. Business leaders, including Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce chief Jim Rooney, have sounded the alarm that roadway gridlock and a transit system that limps along from one problem to the next are threatening the regional

Long-awaited education funding bill unveiled

Calls for 'unprecedented' $1.4 billion boost in state aid, much of it to poorer communities

FOUR YEARS AFTER a state commission declared that the Massachusetts education funding formula was shortchanging school districts by $1 to $2 billion, state lawmakers unveiled an ambitious proposal that would increase state aid to local schools by $1.4 billion. The bill goes a long way toward meeting the calls of education advocates and district leaders

The ‘conscience of Boston’

Rev. Michael Haynes, Roxbury icon, MLK colleague and contemporary, dies at 92

WHEN MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. led a march from Roxbury to Boston Common in 1965 to protest school segregation in the city, his deepest connection here was a young Roxbury minister named Michael Haynes.  They met not long after King arrived from Atlanta to pursue at doctorate at Boston University in 1951. King delivered guest

‘No more real newspaper’ in Worcester

Cuts turning Telegram into a ‘ghost newspaper’

THE “GHOST NEWSPAPER” ERA has arrived in Massachusetts, and the worst is almost certainly yet to come. The state has not yet been hit with vast news deserts, the term of the media moment to describe areas without any newspaper presence following the closure of more than 1,800 US papers since 2004. But the land is

Alex Morse wants to change how Washington works

Holyoke mayor says Richie Neal wields power, but for whom?

ALEX MORSE, the 30-year-old mayor of Holyoke, may look like he’s on a fool’s errand by challenging Rep. Richard Neal in next year’s Democratic primary. After all, just seven months ago Neal’s three decades of toil in the DC vineyards landed him in one of the most powerful positions in the House, chairman of the tax

Riley casts vision for education change

Says 'deeper learning,' new assessments should be part of next chapter

WHEN JEFF RILEY took the reins as state education commissioner early last year he suggested it was time to turn the page on 25 years of education reform efforts, pointing to stalled achievement scores, a stubbornly persistent achievement gap, and an unhealthy focus on testing. But exactly what he had in mind for the next

Boston taps high-stakes testing opponent

New superintendent opposes 10th grade MCAS graduation requirement

THE BOSTON SCHOOL COMMITTEE answered the question of who will lead the district by tapping former Minnesota education commissioner Brenda Cassellius to be the city’s next school superintendent. But the answer to that question has raised a new one about the commitment of the state’s largest district to one of the central pillars of the

Local accountability in schools lacking, says report

Study urges stronger goal-setting by districts and schools

MASSACHUSETTS HAS BUILT its school reform effort on a combination of new state funding and accountability measures that track student and district achievement, but that has largely let local districts off the hook for setting ambitious goals of their own and holding themselves and schools responsible for meeting them. That’s the conclusion of a new
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