david i. backer
@schooldaves
associate prof of education policy. former high school teacher. education, ideology, policy, finance, climate, socialism. he/him.
Check us out at the Socialism conference in Chicago, we’ve got a panel on socialism and municipal finance Monday 9/7 at 10am. socialismconference.org/2026-schedule/
Oh no socialists want to do cool stuff for NYC public schools! Everybody freak out! (Great PR) nypost.com/2026/07/26/u...
Thinking of @aldasky.bsky.social today: we e got red sky socialism in NYC.
School districts basically never default but generally speaking if it’s not on your bingo card these days then it def should be.
It’s me wearing pink at the @dissentmag.bsky.social event for Know Your Enemy and @mikeduncan.bsky.social my face is doing something a little weird
Found out from neighbors in my building that Sonny Rollins, who just died, used to live in our coop in north Brooklyn. Here’s a picture with his German Shepherd in our parking lot c. 1972.
So much for the neofascist idea that keeping women out of universities would make any difference to birth rates. It’s people without degrees that are having fewer kids. Free college = increased birth rate?
Thanks to the MORE-UFT caucus for reading my book and inviting me to answer questions!
A text rife with contradictions where a neoliberal technocrat, threatened with having their competencies automated by AI, articulates the problem more clearly than I’ve seen: fedscoop.com/when-philant...
Been thinking a lot about these lines from Althusser's book on imperialism:
I just gave a book talk about radical school finance a few floors above where UTLA was bargaining their big contract. Solidarity and thanks to the organizers—and the bargainers who joined us!
And after the Robin DG Kelley talk Thursday, on Saturday, I’ll be doing a book talk with @utlanow.bsky.social at 11am PST. Sign up here!
If you’re at AERA you’d be dumb not to come to this lecture by Robin DG Kelley Thursday night at 6pm.
Speechless, but also so much to say about this graph. The compulsion cycle of Ed reform is so dense and the subject so variable that education research just isn’t replicated—it’s whoever makes the most noise, generates panic, soothes political-economic nerves. From: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
My tiktok about Portland is in the news! www.oregonlive.com/education/20...
The MORE-UFT caucus in NYC is doing a reading group of my book, and one of the core organizers’ cats bought a bunch of copies for them.
Crazy that the Iran war threatens budget negotiations in NYC since when the stock market goes down Wall Street traders get smaller bonuses which translates to decreased city tax revenues. www.thecity.nyc/2026/03/11/m...
If you're in LA in April I'll be doing a book talk on April 11th at 11am PST in person at the UTLA office. Sign up here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
I guess the new credit crisis is a kind of (not a) bank run where investors are yanking their money from companies that lend to other companies, promising quick high returns on the loans—but the borrowers are going under, and there’s been bad underwriting. Ed tech is involved:
Philly! I’m doing an online book talk sponsored by amazing people!
Very cool master's thesis out of U Chicago social sciences: stonecenter.uchicago.edu/news-insight...
Don’t realize the Paris Commune called for participatory budgeting: