He manages and writes for Thoughts on Public Education, one of the leading sources of California education policy reporting and opinion. For 11 years before that, he wrote editorials at the Mercury News in San Jose, with a focus on education. John worked as a reporter, news editor and opinion editor for three newspapers in New Hampshire for two decades before discovering the wonders of California through a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University in 1997 and heading West shortly thereafter. His wife is an elementary school teacher and his daughter attends the University California at Davis.