Carolyn Jones covers K-12 education at CalMatters. A longtime news reporter, she’s covered education for nearly a decade, focusing on everything from special education to state funding policies to inequities in student achievement. She’s won numerous awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association, and was a finalist in 2020 for beat reporter of the year (small newsroom) by the Education Writers Association. In 2023, she spent five weeks in Albania as a Fulbright Specialist working on media literacy and promoting a free press. At CalMatters, she’s written about how culture wars play out in schools, the challenges facing Native American students, lack of funds for rural school repair, the revolution in school meals and other topics. She always tries to include student voices in stories, linking broader policy issues to their impacts on young people, their families and communities. Previously, she worked at EdSource, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Oakland Tribune, covering government, breaking news, the environment and other beats. Jones attended public schools in California, where she got her start in journalism at the San Rafael High Red & White, and graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in English. A longtime Oakland resident, she has two children and a Siberian husky.
