Mikhail Zinshteyn

Mikhail Zinshteyn reports on higher education for CalMatters. His coverage tackles state legislation, financial aid, labor issues, student demands, campus housing and college affordability.  

He finds stories by poring over public data, scouring documents, listening to public agency meetings and learning from students, academics, advocates, top leaders and entry-level staff — really, anyone who will talk with him.

Some of the CalMatters stories he is most proud of include a deep-dive into the passions fueling campus protests over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a visual guide to understanding the mystifying cost of college in California, financial aid expansion, his coverage of faculty strikes and tuition hikes at Cal State, the plight of lecturers at the University of California, and his focus on campus housing at community colleges and the state’s public universities. 

Mikhail’s work on examining why the California State University system struggles to graduate its Black students was a finalist for the Sacramento Press Club Awards in 2023. 

Before joining CalMatters, Mikhail worked as a reporter at EdSource and freelanced for Inside Higher Ed, The Hechinger Report, The 74 and The Atlantic, among other outlets. He also worked as a program manager for the Education Writers Association. He’s been covering higher education as his primary beat since 2015. His path into professional journalism began with unpaid internships that he subsidized with evening and weekend shifts at restaurants. 

Mikhail earned a bachelor’s from Union College and a master’s from the London School of Economics. Scholarships, work-study, Pell grants and loans funded his education. He was born in the Soviet Union and is fluent in Russian.