david i. backer
@schooldaves.bsky.social
associate prof of education policy. former high school teacher. education, ideology, policy, finance, climate, socialism. he/him. https://linktr.ee/davidibacker
Pinned
david i. backer
@schooldaves.bsky.social
· Sep 13
As Public as Possible - The New Press
A witty and provocative treatise on the financial policies we’ll need to make our public schools work for all childrenFrom the anti-CRT panic to efforts to divert tax dollars to charter schools, the r...
thenewpress.org
My book is coming!!! thenewpress.org/books/as-pub...
Reposted by david i. backer
This election, we have a chance to send a new slate of fighters for affordability to Albany. Join our campaign as a day one supporter so we can tell Kathy Hochul it's time to tax the rich and deliver a New York we can afford. valdesforny.com
November 26, 2025 at 7:45 PM
This election, we have a chance to send a new slate of fighters for affordability to Albany. Join our campaign as a day one supporter so we can tell Kathy Hochul it's time to tax the rich and deliver a New York we can afford. valdesforny.com
I'm starting a series at my newsletter where I spelunk NYC school finance. I haven't looked into these byztantine flows before, but now that Zohran is taking power I want to understand more deeply.
Here's a 🧵based on my first post in this vein. buttondown.com/davidibacker...
Here's a 🧵based on my first post in this vein. buttondown.com/davidibacker...
Education 040
Quick Links Mia on the It Could Happen Here podcast featured my Baffler essay on the municipal bond market in a recent episode. Check it out.New fancy...
buttondown.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:27 PM
I'm starting a series at my newsletter where I spelunk NYC school finance. I haven't looked into these byztantine flows before, but now that Zohran is taking power I want to understand more deeply.
Here's a 🧵based on my first post in this vein. buttondown.com/davidibacker...
Here's a 🧵based on my first post in this vein. buttondown.com/davidibacker...
Hearing reports that there might be a review of my book in Jacobin tomorrow. 👀👀👀
November 26, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Hearing reports that there might be a review of my book in Jacobin tomorrow. 👀👀👀
Reposted by david i. backer
School people: Great article by @benjaminjriley.bsky.social deflating the "AI hype machine."
Tech hype is literally the founding flaw of US public schools.
If you want to read the full history, my book is now 40% off thanks to Johns Hopkins. Use the code: HHOL25
Tech hype is literally the founding flaw of US public schools.
If you want to read the full history, my book is now 40% off thanks to Johns Hopkins. Use the code: HHOL25
November 25, 2025 at 1:41 PM
School people: Great article by @benjaminjriley.bsky.social deflating the "AI hype machine."
Tech hype is literally the founding flaw of US public schools.
If you want to read the full history, my book is now 40% off thanks to Johns Hopkins. Use the code: HHOL25
Tech hype is literally the founding flaw of US public schools.
If you want to read the full history, my book is now 40% off thanks to Johns Hopkins. Use the code: HHOL25
Reposted by david i. backer
States could similarly organize and resist federal policies by adopting interlinked legislation offering undocumented individuals greater protections, or could establish regional health care policies when the inevitable happens. 4/
November 25, 2025 at 11:07 AM
States could similarly organize and resist federal policies by adopting interlinked legislation offering undocumented individuals greater protections, or could establish regional health care policies when the inevitable happens. 4/
Just gazing at this page and chart, have to get rid of the tab so I'm posting it here. comptroller.nyc.gov/services/fin...
November 24, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Just gazing at this page and chart, have to get rid of the tab so I'm posting it here. comptroller.nyc.gov/services/fin...
Thanks to Mia and It Could Happen Here podcast for featuring my @thebaffler.com piece on the bond market! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
The Challenges Facing the Mamdani Administration
Podcast Episode · It Could Happen Here · 11/17/2025 · 23m
podcasts.apple.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Thanks to Mia and It Could Happen Here podcast for featuring my @thebaffler.com piece on the bond market! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...
Reposted by david i. backer
Ohio, continuing to work hard to ensure MAGA control of schools:
Ohio bill would add political parties to school board races, reduce State Board of Education seats • Ohio Capital Journal
The Ohio legislature brought back up a bill that would add party names to local school board elections, and added an amendment that would eliminate elected seats on the State Board of Education, makin...
ohiocapitaljournal.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:00 PM
Ohio, continuing to work hard to ensure MAGA control of schools:
Reposted by david i. backer
ED has never considered these degrees to be professional, instead relying on a tiny list put together decades ago (that they barely changed in 2025). It's just that the graduate/professional distinction never really mattered for accessing federal student loans until now.
ICYMI Dept of Education will no longer considers these professional degrees:
Nursing
Public health
Social work
Physician assistant
Occupational therapy
Physical therapy
Audiology
Speech-language pathology
Social work
Counseling & therapy
Health Admin
A smaller health workforce makes us all sicker
Nursing
Public health
Social work
Physician assistant
Occupational therapy
Physical therapy
Audiology
Speech-language pathology
Social work
Counseling & therapy
Health Admin
A smaller health workforce makes us all sicker
November 22, 2025 at 10:29 PM
ED has never considered these degrees to be professional, instead relying on a tiny list put together decades ago (that they barely changed in 2025). It's just that the graduate/professional distinction never really mattered for accessing federal student loans until now.
Reposted by david i. backer
Reposted for Spinoza's birthday
www.unemployednegativity.com/2025/05/logi...
www.unemployednegativity.com/2025/05/logi...
Logic of Alternation: Spinoza’s Prehistory of Ideology (and its Marxist History)
www.unemployednegativity.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:17 PM
Reposted for Spinoza's birthday
www.unemployednegativity.com/2025/05/logi...
www.unemployednegativity.com/2025/05/logi...
Reposted by david i. backer
Laptops in the Long Run: Evidence from the One Laptop per Child Program in Rural Peru www.nber.org/papers/w34495
"no significant effects on academic performance but evidence of negative effects on grade progression....computer access improved students’ computer skills but not cognitive skills"
"no significant effects on academic performance but evidence of negative effects on grade progression....computer access improved students’ computer skills but not cognitive skills"
Laptops in the Long Run: Evidence from the One Laptop per Child Program in Rural Peru
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org
November 24, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Laptops in the Long Run: Evidence from the One Laptop per Child Program in Rural Peru www.nber.org/papers/w34495
"no significant effects on academic performance but evidence of negative effects on grade progression....computer access improved students’ computer skills but not cognitive skills"
"no significant effects on academic performance but evidence of negative effects on grade progression....computer access improved students’ computer skills but not cognitive skills"
Reposted by david i. backer
November 23, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Reposted by david i. backer
"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe
"The humanities really are a resource — a confidence for living in our times.” Dean Sara Guyer on the modern utility of humanities degrees
This interview originally appeared on the Division of Arts
bit.ly
November 23, 2025 at 3:38 PM
"While other universities report that the humanities are shrinking, at Berkeley, the opposite is true. The music major is the fastest-growing major on campus. We are finding bigger classrooms because film is exploding. English is back to the numbers we saw 15 years ago. We are hiring" bit.ly/4ohKuOe
Reposted by david i. backer
My moderating skills were a little rusty, but this event still turned out SO GREAT thanks to @sandynurse.bsky.social & @ngusdorf.bsky.social!!
If you want to learn about how NYC government works (we get deep into the city budget) you absolutely can't miss this event!!
youtu.be/kTZb8XlVJs0
If you want to learn about how NYC government works (we get deep into the city budget) you absolutely can't miss this event!!
youtu.be/kTZb8XlVJs0
Local Power
YouTube video by LPE Project
youtu.be
November 23, 2025 at 7:25 PM
My moderating skills were a little rusty, but this event still turned out SO GREAT thanks to @sandynurse.bsky.social & @ngusdorf.bsky.social!!
If you want to learn about how NYC government works (we get deep into the city budget) you absolutely can't miss this event!!
youtu.be/kTZb8XlVJs0
If you want to learn about how NYC government works (we get deep into the city budget) you absolutely can't miss this event!!
youtu.be/kTZb8XlVJs0
Reposted by david i. backer
Revisiting this, as federal aid that's long been targeted to improve equity may eventually disappear, or be used in ways that erode rather than advance equity (if block granted) www.shankerinstitute.org/blog/cutting...
How Would Cutting Federal Aid to Schools Affect Student Achievement?
A simulation of the impact of eliminating federal aid to schools suggests no student would be left unharmed.
www.shankerinstitute.org
November 21, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Revisiting this, as federal aid that's long been targeted to improve equity may eventually disappear, or be used in ways that erode rather than advance equity (if block granted) www.shankerinstitute.org/blog/cutting...
Reposted by david i. backer
Martijn Konings, Fiscal Dominance? — Sidecar
Trump and the Federal Reserve.
newleftreview.org
November 12, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Reposted by david i. backer
"If the city were to get into fiscal trouble and face a decision between paying teachers and paying bondholders, it would have to pay bondholders." -- @schooldaves.bsky.social on the uphill fight municipal socialism faces against the investment environment
Paying for It | David I. Backer
Should Zohran Mamdani become the next mayor of New York City, he will be restricted by the municipal bond market.
thebaffler.com
November 20, 2025 at 1:18 PM
"If the city were to get into fiscal trouble and face a decision between paying teachers and paying bondholders, it would have to pay bondholders." -- @schooldaves.bsky.social on the uphill fight municipal socialism faces against the investment environment
Reposted by david i. backer
The New School is now a place where students cannot major in History, Anthropology, Sociology, Global Policy & International Affairs, Global Studies, Urban Studies, or Environmental Studies. And more pauses, closures, and mergers coming down the pike this week. The future is uncertain.
November 19, 2025 at 1:15 PM
The New School is now a place where students cannot major in History, Anthropology, Sociology, Global Policy & International Affairs, Global Studies, Urban Studies, or Environmental Studies. And more pauses, closures, and mergers coming down the pike this week. The future is uncertain.
Reposted by david i. backer
"It’s like paying a contractor double to mow your lawn and then claiming you’ve cut the home maintenance budget. It makes no sense."
🗑️ 💸 🗑️
ICYMI: The Trump administration is moving core U.S. Department of Education offices into other agencies—effectively erasing the agency that serves students.
🗑️ 💸 🗑️
ICYMI: The Trump administration is moving core U.S. Department of Education offices into other agencies—effectively erasing the agency that serves students.
November 19, 2025 at 3:15 PM
"It’s like paying a contractor double to mow your lawn and then claiming you’ve cut the home maintenance budget. It makes no sense."
🗑️ 💸 🗑️
ICYMI: The Trump administration is moving core U.S. Department of Education offices into other agencies—effectively erasing the agency that serves students.
🗑️ 💸 🗑️
ICYMI: The Trump administration is moving core U.S. Department of Education offices into other agencies—effectively erasing the agency that serves students.
A quaint piece about declining test scores—one rly doesn’t know what to say anymore about test scores—but this is a good line: “America’s atomized school system, with its emphasis on local control, assures that every district is unhappy in its own way.” nymag.com/intelligence...
How Public Education Failed in the Liberal Enclaves That Care About It Most
Student achievement has fallen off a cliff. Neither Trump nor the pandemic is to blame.
nymag.com
November 19, 2025 at 6:18 AM
A quaint piece about declining test scores—one rly doesn’t know what to say anymore about test scores—but this is a good line: “America’s atomized school system, with its emphasis on local control, assures that every district is unhappy in its own way.” nymag.com/intelligence...
“Utility debt” is an interesting concept tcf.org/content/comm...
Fueling Debt: How Rising Utility Costs Are Overwhelming American Families
As temperatures cool and Americans’ dissatisfaction with the economy grows, families across the country are staring down a winter season that will be more
tcf.org
November 17, 2025 at 5:22 PM
“Utility debt” is an interesting concept tcf.org/content/comm...
Reposted by david i. backer
We finally solved that pesky problem of too many college graduates getting jobs
Kevin Hassett: "I think there could be a little bit of an almost quiet time in the labor market, because firms are finding that AI is making their workers so productive that they don't necessarily have to hire the new kids out of college and so on."
November 17, 2025 at 1:39 PM
We finally solved that pesky problem of too many college graduates getting jobs
Reposted by david i. backer
"Much of the data collected in education is effectively thrown away. Students answer individual test questions, but administrators and researchers only see aggregate performance....large gains could be had in education by simply using all the data we currently collect." www.nber.org/papers/w34484
Do Test Scores Misrepresent Test Results? An Item-by-Item Analysis
Founded in 1920, the NBER is a private, non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to conducting economic research and to disseminating research findings among academics, public policy makers, an...
www.nber.org
November 17, 2025 at 1:50 PM
"Much of the data collected in education is effectively thrown away. Students answer individual test questions, but administrators and researchers only see aggregate performance....large gains could be had in education by simply using all the data we currently collect." www.nber.org/papers/w34484
Reposted by david i. backer
The AI bubble may be about to bust.
Peter Thiel has sold all of his Nvidia stock.
We all need to say this very clearly:
NO BAILOUTS FOR THEFT-TECH!
Expropriate their asses instead.
They stole from all of us and fully plan to burn the planet.
They owe us - not the other way around. 1/3
Peter Thiel has sold all of his Nvidia stock.
We all need to say this very clearly:
NO BAILOUTS FOR THEFT-TECH!
Expropriate their asses instead.
They stole from all of us and fully plan to burn the planet.
They owe us - not the other way around. 1/3
November 17, 2025 at 6:37 AM
The AI bubble may be about to bust.
Peter Thiel has sold all of his Nvidia stock.
We all need to say this very clearly:
NO BAILOUTS FOR THEFT-TECH!
Expropriate their asses instead.
They stole from all of us and fully plan to burn the planet.
They owe us - not the other way around. 1/3
Peter Thiel has sold all of his Nvidia stock.
We all need to say this very clearly:
NO BAILOUTS FOR THEFT-TECH!
Expropriate their asses instead.
They stole from all of us and fully plan to burn the planet.
They owe us - not the other way around. 1/3