Andy Hall, long time education reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal is leaving the paper to start a nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism. Andy is a fine reporter and will be missed.
Andy writes clearly and always does his homework. Part of the project at AMPS has been to improve understanding of education issues by addressing the failings of the media coverage; I don’t think we’ve ever seen a need to use one of Andy’s stories as an example of what’s wrong.
Beyond consistently excellent coverage of the Madison schools, he derserves special praise for his 2007 “Squeezing Schools” series, which has had a statewide impact by doing much to enhance comprehension of Wisconsin’s broken school finance system.
This is the kind of thing we need journalists to do more of. A couple of quotes from Andy indicate that continuing this sort of work is the mission of his new undertaking.
“Mainstream journalism is in economic trouble, but the needs of our democracy are greater than ever,” said Andy Hall, executive director of the center and its sole initial employee.”
…”He said the mission is to protect the vulnerable, expose wrongdoing and seek solutions to pressing problems.”
We wish Andy and the Center the best!
Thomas J. Mertz
AMPS 
These are well-earned words of praise. As a longtime WSJ colleague of Andy Hall, I saw his diligence and dedication at work daily, especially in his willingness to help anyone, at anytime. He brought those skills to covering education and his expertise will be missed. He was also able to take criticism seriously and dispense compliments honestly. His writing was simple and direct. I hope he can train a few journalists to keep an eye on education issues and the people behind them, goodness knows we need more than a few.
I am sure he appreciates your kind words but would never tell us about them.