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

A report from three organizations, analyzing data from Kansas and Arizona, posits that citizenship laws are costly, error-prone and disenfranchise voters. Plus, citizenship is already a requirement to vote nationwide.

via @kansasreflector.com
As more states pass proof of citizenship laws, report points to Kansas as cautionary tale
TOPEKA — Kansas’ failed proof of citizenship law could serve as a cautionary tale for Congress and other states just beginning to craft similar voting restrictions, a report found.Federal legislation…
www.newsfromthestates.com

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker

President Trump participated in calls with kids today to discuss Santa Claus' Christmas Eve travels being tracked through the NORAD tracking program, a tradition that's now in its 70th year. Less traditional were some of Trump's comments.
Trump tells kid in Christmas call he wants to ensure "bad Santa" isn't "infiltrating" U.S.
Another kid told him she didn't want Santa to bring coal, to which Trump replied: "You mean clean, beautiful coal."
www.axios.com

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker

Bari Weiss, who made her career sowing distrust in the mainstream media, is now pretending other people did that and she’s here to help right the ship

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker

The Press: Grade inflation is rampant!

Also the Press: Grad student gets canned for flunking a horribly written essay!
The Supreme Court rejected the federal government’s request to deploy the National Guard in Illinois.

It’s time to let our troops go home to celebrate the holidays with their families — and stay home.
If only we had an amendment to the Constitution that protected speech . . .
CNN @cnn.com · 2d
The USPS faces a tight squeeze. With fewer people using the mail, it’s lost more and more money: $9 billion in the 12 months ending in September alone.
https://cnn.it/4qkeNoF
Recently accepted by #QJE, “Marginal Returns to Public Universities,” by Jack Mountjoy: doi.org/10.1093/qje/...
Marginal Returns to Public Universities
Abstract. This paper studies the returns to enrolling in American public universities by comparing the long-term outcomes of barely admitted versus barely
doi.org

Boardrooms for me (and my kids), call centers for thee (and yours) [only difference between Rocketship back in 2014 and newer variants is a software update - AI integration - which isn't necessarily an improvement].
I recently did a podcast for the Natural Rural Education Association on a law review I co-authored on the creation of "education preserves," which would protect rural school districts from voucher and charter school expansion.

Here is the podcast:

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s...
S05E04 - School Choice in Rural America: What’s at Stake. An interview with Dr. Preston Green.
Podcast Episode · National Rural Education Association Official Podcast · 12/15/2025 · 35m
podcasts.apple.com
“I’m 84 years old. Threats against my life expectancy are kind of hollow. I don’t have much time anyway. I’m more concerned that our democracy is at risk because of the trends against the rule of law.” www.nbcnews.com/politics/pol...
Judges who ruled against Trump say harassment and threats have changed their lives
More than 100 pizzas were delivered to the homes of judges and their families this year, some with signs of foreign involvement. Judges say the message is clear: We know where you live.
www.nbcnews.com

To summarize - hard to accept from tech bros & policymakers who sat around Harkness Tables with 11 peers interactively opining on history, philosophy and literature that "other peoples' children" should be placed in sparsely supervised rooms of cubicles interacting with AI bots on tablets.

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker

I think back to when I wrote about contrasts between what elites want for the masses (in public ed) versus what they want for their own: privschoolspubinterest.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/t...
Thoughts on Elite Private Independent Schools and Public Education Reforms
I was informed by my brilliant and thoughtful cousin Bill the other day that on Jan 6-7 in Washington, DC., John Chubb, the new head of the National Association of Independent Schools is convening …
privschoolspubinterest.wordpress.com

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker

"I’m a really big believer...in just using all kinds of evidence. I’m not the least bit interested in the quantitative versus qualitative divide. If something can be quantified, quantify it. It’s just that often it can’t be..." sociologica.unibo.it/article/view...
View of Theda Skocpol in Conversation with Edwin Amenta on Sociology, Political Science, Higher Education, and U.S. Politics | Sociologica
sociologica.unibo.it
I'd be delighted to have a hairstylist or a youth soccer coach visit for a night

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker

Taxes are part of how we take care of each other in a community. Be mad when the richest aren't paying more. Be mad when govt budgets aren't moral. But unless the state no longer exists then taxes are how we fund public services. "Any taxes are bad" rhetoric is just lazy and selfish.

It only helps a little, and is offset partly by their animus and the apparent joy they take in cruelty.
I mean yeah it’s an authoritarian takeover but can we take some comfort in the fact that the people doing it are INSANELY stupid?
In case people tell you that public criticism of the court doesn’t matter, here’s Brett Kavanaugh trying to walk back what he said in the ICE roving patrol case - when he blessed racial profiling & called the stops prompt.

He was lambasted; @akalhan.bsky.social coined the term “Kavanaugh stops”
I mean yeah it’s an authoritarian takeover but can we take some comfort in the fact that the people doing it are INSANELY stupid?

And those outcomes? (a mess - in need of careful vetting, accountability, etc.)

a few thoughts on FL charter schools - and the need to pause and rethink before moving forward:

No, you can’t do that, airhead. It’s not within your authority and it violates several laws.
Sean Duffy on blue states: "What I can do is I can pull their money. That's the leverage I do have ... I guarantee you that the federal taxpayer is not going to fund their roads and bridges and their systems when they are putting illegals on the roads."

Reposted by Bruce D. Baker