Bruce D. Baker
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schoolfinance101.bsky.social
Bruce D. Baker
@schoolfinance101.bsky.social

Professor, Education Finance & Policy
Personal Website: https://schoolfinance101.com
School Finance Indicators Database: https://www.schoolfinancedata.org/
Books: https://hep.gse.harvard.edu/author/bruce-d-baker/

Political science 45%
Sociology 22%

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker

After shining a perpetual light on the 5 Americans with 300K of student debt, the NYT has moved on to profiling the 5 humanities professors who love AI.
I’m a Professor. A.I. Has Changed My Classroom, but Not for the Worse.
www.nytimes.com

Safe bet if you can convince enough others to put down the Kool-aid. But I guess that's task #1. [I've certainly found a handful - small handful - of productive uses of LLMs across my work, each of which relies on what they are NOT]

The thing is - understanding what LLMs are not and can't do is really helpful for identifying the limited applications where they can add value or save time.

nailed it:
Grateful to The Verge for publishing my essay on why large-language models are not going to achieve general intelligence nor push the scientific frontier.

www.theverge.com/ai-artificia...
Is language the same as intelligence? The AI industry desperately needs it to be
The AI boom is based on a fundamental mistake.
www.theverge.com

These guys are truly delusional about some greater time in 'merica when only white folk could fly - and only the men could buy the plane ticket on their own credit card - where racially restricted country clubs, and neighborhoods around them "flourished." (not that some of these have changed much)
Duffy on his demand that air travelers not wear slippers or pajamas: "It honors our country ... don't take your shoes off and put your feet on the chair ahead of you"

Public discourse on so many issues would be improved if using appropriately: price vs cost vs spending, including understanding inflation, or efficiency (and why, for example DOGE had nothing to do with efficiency - merely slashing spending not "cost", thus reducing services provided)

And for pointing out that not everything tracks with or should be adjusted by the price of consumer goods. Head/desk!!!!!

Good read - and sharing Rob's "grrrrrrr" regarding others who misunderstand "price" and "cost" and constantly misuse the terms!
I was sufficiently annoyed with a piece claiming that inflation-adjusted college costs have doubled over the last 20 years that I wrote a response. There really haven't been increases over the last decade, but I fear that promising trend may be changing.
College Prices Have Not Risen Dramatically in the Last Decade—But Will That Change?
Higher education is facing a crisis of confidence among the general public, and much of that is driven by concerns regarding affordability. For example, about 80 percent of Democrats and Republican…
robertkelchen.com

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker

Despite all the hype around superintelligence or whatever, there's still a very simple thing that AI models are completely incapable of: obeying a time limit. Why? And what does this suggest about the human relationship with time?

All that plus some Ferris Bueller in my latest essay.
On artificial time
Why can't you tell a chatbot how long to work on something?
open.substack.com

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker

"What the Epstein class understands is that the more accessible information becomes, the more precious nonpublic information is."

If you have the time and patience this is recommended. www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o... [email protected] [gift link]
Opinion | How the Elite Behave When No One Is Watching: Inside the Epstein Emails
www.nytimes.com
For over 300 years now, it is a bedrock principle in Anglo-American constitutionalism that obedience is owed according only to law. Refusal to follow an illegal command is not only a moral choice but an absolute duty.

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker

Good riddance. Lots of things don't exist because of the damage DOGE did, like this multi-million dollar Congressionally-mandated report that was about to be published when everyone working on it was laid off or put on administrative leave.
I don’t think there’s any moving forward for the United States without addressing the Musk problem.

badfaithtimes.com/holding-elon...
Holding Elon Musk Accountable Is A Matter Of National Survival
Elected Democrats can't move on this time.
badfaithtimes.com
What was ChatGPT? Now nearly three years old, we can look at OpenAI's LLM as a product of its time, optimized ever since to its earliest uses. While this period of deep disorientation and social isolation has been obscured from public memory, it remains embedded within the interface.
What Was ChatGPT?
A Chatbot Optimized for Social Distance Three years after the launch of ChatGPT, we can finally speak in hindsight about what it was and how it came to be. Its meteoric rise shocked the world, gather...
mail.cyberneticforests.com

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker

An excellent and tragically necessary piece from Anand Giridharadas (@anandwrites.bsky.social) for the NYT (gift-link): www.nytimes.com/2025/11/23/o...
Opinion | How the Elite Behave When No One Is Watching: Inside the Epstein Emails
www.nytimes.com
There are going to be prominent Democrats and mainstream media voices who insist that we have to "turn the page" and "forgive and forget" and they should all be roundly ignored, if not mercilessly mocked.
It’s crazy to think about the crimes we’re going to learn about after this regime ends.

We’re already hearing about Watergate level crimes every week. Imagine what will come out after it’s over.

We’re going to need a full accounting of all that’s been done in violation of the constitution.

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker

There women go, not ruining science again 🤷‍♀️

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Women seem to retract fewer papers than men — but why?
In an analysis of nearly 900 retracted medical-research studies, the number of female authors is disproportionately low.
www.nature.com

Yeah - It was when I started browsing through that - that the connection really hit me.

Agreed! In general, I think the overemphasis on STEM, per se, and justifying everything in terms of STEM - (trying to make everything as "sciency" as possible) - has really compromised deeper learning & appreciation of literature, music, visual arts.

Right? Interesting how they co-opted the arts here, as part of a broader right-wing movement to push western European art and white nationalism. (in same what a segment has co-opted "classical" education, which was tilted that way to begin with).