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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 4h

I started doing this thing where students do projects at the end of the semester, and then they write multiple choice questions based on the projects, which they present.

They submit the questions, and then I give the class a collective final exam where everyone has written the questions.

Reposted by david i. backer

Joshua Weishart @joshuaweishart.bsky.social · 5h

Just circling back to this discussion to add this perspective: nepc.colorado.edu/sites/defaul...

nepc.colorado.edu

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Reposted by david i. backer

Victor Ray @victorerikray.bsky.social · 19h

If red state schools accept this we are going to get a two-tiered system of higher ed. One set of states will be based in empirical reality and the other will be subject to the whims of a conspiratorial movement that is increasingly detached from facts.

Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 20h

After getting zero firm commitments to this point from the first nine invitees, the Trump administration is extending its proposed compact to all colleges. Expect some red-state publics to say yes.

Trump Offers All Colleges Preferential Funding Plan Rejected by MIT

The Trump administration is inviting all US colleges to participate in a compact — initially rejected by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — that would grant preferential federal funding in re...

www.bloomberg.com

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Reposted by david i. backer

Dan Greene @dmgreene.bsky.social · 20h

As always--the south is the nation's weathervane. Very good chance we don't get a real budget for the rest of this presidential administration.

Tressie McMillan Cottom @tressiemcphd.bsky.social · 22h

North Carolina still does not have a state budget:

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 23h

BREAKING: North Carolina Republicans announce plans to vote on a new U.S. House map as a nationwide redistricting battle unfolds.

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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 20h

“We are asking you to ‘Trump-proof’ our states by securing the revenue needed and directing it to protect your constituents’ education, health care, housing, access to food and other public services.” actionnetwork.org/petitions/go...

Governors: Stand Up for Our Families

Help our Governors to stand up against the Trump occupations of our cities, and cuts to vital healthcare, transit and public education - while taking on the billionaires who are bleeding us dry.

actionnetwork.org

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Reposted by david i. backer

Joshua Weishart @joshuaweishart.bsky.social · 2d

The Education Department has been repurposed to destabilize public education so they can privatize much of it.

The harm inflicted on children in the process is just another casualty of the Project 2025 education agenda.

Sara Partridge, PhD @sarapartridge.bsky.social · 3d

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.

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Reposted by david i. backer

Sara Partridge, PhD @sarapartridge.bsky.social · 3d

There are reports that the *entire* office of special education at the US Dept of Education has been cut. These hardworking folks ensure kids with disabilities get equal access to a quality education.

America’s children deserve better than this.

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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 3d

We’d do well to be studying North Dakota c. 1900 right now I think www.pbs.org/video/part-1...

The Rise And Fall Of The Nonpartisan League | Part 1: We'll Stick We'll Win

Part 1 of 3 on The Rise And Fall Of The Nonpartisan League.

www.pbs.org

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Reposted by david i. backer

NightMar on Hicks Street, Part 4: The Rabbit’s Revenge @histoftech.bsky.social · 3d

The Virginia Senate just told UVA it’s not getting state funding if it accepts the compact since UVA exists to serve Virginia, its residents, & their interests—not be a tool of the federal govt. Scoop from our student newspaper, who’ve been doing vital reporting www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025...

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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 4d

Reinstate the fired four! psc-cuny.org/issues/reins...

Reinstate the Fired Four at Brooklyn College - PSC CUNY

psc-cuny.org

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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 4d

I didn’t really put anything about this report but it looks really good—labor and green schools!

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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 4d

Yup yup yup labor4sustainability.org/files/Bargai...

labor4sustainability.org

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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 4d

Pretty excited to talk state funding formulas on a webinar with @ielconnects.bsky.social on 10/21 at 3pm EST!

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Reposted by david i. backer

Preston Green @drprestongreen.bsky.social · 5d

Vouchers would hurt rural Idaho students. That’s why we’re suing | Opinion

Read more at: www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/read...

www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/read...

Vouchers would hurt rural Idaho students. That’s why we’re suing | Opinion

Why would I entertain the idea of pulling $50 million from our general fund to pay for ... fiscally irresponsible tax credits? | Opinion

www.idahostatesman.com

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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 5d

Yeah…

david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 5d

Hmmmm. “I think there is one thing on which most people would agree: that the past fifty years have seen the debacles of two universalist ideologies: communism and neoliberalism. Both were defeated by the real world.” branko2f7.substack.com/p/defeated-b...

Defeated by the real world

Why did neoliberalism, in its domestic and international components, fail?

branko2f7.substack.com

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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 6d

Support teacher Aiat Oraby. As a Jewish former teacher and now professor of education leadership, I feel less safe when Zionists repress reasonable critiques of injustice in Israel. actionnetwork.org/petitions/we...

We support Aiat Oraby, editor of NJEA Review magazine

The NJEA is one of our nation's largest and most effective public school employee unions. It is a justice centered union that makes an effort to be equitable. Aiat Oraby has been a highly effective NJ...

actionnetwork.org

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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 7d

GO GET THIS BOOK IT IS VERY GOOD www.pennpress.org/978151282822...

Cracked Foundations – Penn Press

How debt and speculation financed the suburban American dream and led to today’s inequalitiesIn the popular imagination, the suburbs are synonymous with th...

www.pennpress.org

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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 7d

“Adults don’t look up”

Nome @nome.bsky.social · 7d

3) Adults don't look up, so signs above eye level are functionally meaningless.

Adults will stand there wall-eyed while someone under a massive sign saying "Standard Screening, Enter Here" repeats it out loud to them "Yes, standard screening, here," while their kids get it instantly.

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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 7d

I’ve sometimes wondered what Marxism is supposed to do with the fact that our understanding of material conditions is a feature of consciousness, which is supposed to be formed by material conditions. Great essay! salvage.zone/beyond-folk-...

Beyond Folk Marxism: Mind, Metaphysics and Spooky Materialism - Salvage

Why, and how, are any of us capable of self-reflective thought? Of experiencing emotion, ratiocination, preference, cold, whim, melancholy, joy? Anything at all?

salvage.zone

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Reposted by david i. backer

n+1 @nplusonemag.com · 8d

It’s hard to identify anything functional about Trumpian stupidity, which is less a form of organizational inertia than a slash-and-burn assault on the very things—universities, public health, market data—that help make the world intelligible. www.nplusonemag.com/issue-51/pol...

Stupidology | William Davies

The challenge posed by this political crisis is how to take the stupidity seriously without reducing it to a wholly mental or psychiatric, let alone genetic, phenomenon. Stupidity can be understood as...

www.nplusonemag.com

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Reposted by david i. backer

JW Mason @jwmason.bsky.social · 8d

Another way of looking at this same picture: The euro zone is a system that use the leverage of a central bank outside the control of national governments to force deep austerity on countries like Spain, which sent them into deep depressions that created fiscal deficits that didn't previously exist.

Robin Brooks @robin-j-brooks.bsky.social · 9d

The Euro zone is a system where fiscally responsible countries subsidize chronically irresponsible ones like Italy & Spain. This happens via open-ended, no-strings-attached transfers by way of joint EU debt issuance and periodic ECB yield caps. A system that will fail because incentives are broken.

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Reposted by david i. backer

Mark @mschauk.bsky.social · 8d

We should just replace these markets w/ direct federal grants. @wbmosler.bsky.social @schooldaves.bsky.social #MMT

Bloomberg News @bloomberg.com · 8d

The steady drum beat of federal funding threats totaling billions of dollars is renewing municipal investors’ qualms about lower-rated state and local borrowers.

Trump Funding Risks Put Muni Market Investors on Alert

The steady drum beat of federal funding threats totaling billions of dollars is renewing municipal investors’ qualms about lower-rated state and local borrowers.

bloom.bg

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Reposted by david i. backer

Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · 8d

"What would it mean to democratize school resources? What would it mean to have truly public schools, down to the very means of resource creation and distribution that fuels them...? What will it take to make schools as public as possible?" @schooldaves.bsky.social

Nick Covington @covingtonedu.bsky.social · Sep 9

So stoked to dig into @schooldaves.bsky.social's upcoming book, As Public As Possible: Radical Finance for America's Public Schools, for an upcoming @humanrestorationproject.org podcast!

Link from publisher, @thenewpress.bsky.social: thenewpress.org/books/as-pub...

Screenshot of cover of As Public As Possible: Radical Finance for America's Public Schools

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david i. backer @schooldaves.bsky.social · 8d

Super honored to be presenting at the National Association for Family, School, and Engagement's assembly today online at 11am EST. I'll be talking about my recent work to help communities and movements analyze and advocate for healthy school finance. www.engagementassembly.org/event/1aec8e...

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