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Bruce D. Baker

@schoolfinance101.bsky.social
1.4K followers 537 following 1.9K posts

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

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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
FIFTH REPORT: CHILDREN HARMED AT ALPHA SCHOOL'S BOOT CAMP Just over a week ago, 73 Alpha School high school students were left almost entirely unsupervised for three days in the Texas wilderness. It was a Fyre Festival-like disaster. buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/fifth-repo...
buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com
FIFTH REPORT: CHILDREN HARMED AT ALPHA SCHOOL’S BOOT CAMP
Student hospitalized during Survival Challenge on wilderness ranch; police investigation is ongoing; other concerning incidents re student safety and privacy; one guide fired; also Little B. Diddies
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 7h
Education writers/reporters - take note. Nearly 2 decades of absolute bullshit with real consequences from a single source.
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 7h
Education writers, news outlets - this one - and my other most recent are for you. This one is technical - but important
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 7h
Don't just be skeptical. Shut it down! Reporters out there? This stuff isn't credible!
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 7h
You can be highly efficient at producing low outcomes. Just spend very little. Why efficiency claims require measuring cost, why spending-vs-scores charts mislead policy, and why Florida is efficient but New Jersey is better. schoolfinance101.com/2026/09/30/e...
schoolfinance101.com
Efficiently Mediocre: Why Measuring School Efficiency Requires Measuring Cost
You can be highly efficient at producing low outcomes. Why efficiency claims require measuring cost, why spending-vs-scores charts mislead policy, and what a proper frontier analysis of 8,000 distr…
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
schoolfinance101.com/2026/09/29/s...
schoolfinance101.com
Seventeen Years of Roza-Tinted Glasses
My critiques of Marguerite Roza, the Edunomics Lab, and Education Resource Strategies, from 2009 to 2026, with receipts.
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I want to underscore that there is an ***open and active police investigation*** related to Alpha School’s boot camp. The events in question took place more than a week ago. This is major news. Alpha can refuse to answer my questions. But they cannot refuse to answer the Sheriff’s Department.
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
schoolfinance101.com/2026/09/29/s...
schoolfinance101.com
Seventeen Years of Roza-Tinted Glasses
My critiques of Marguerite Roza, the Edunomics Lab, and Education Resource Strategies, from 2009 to 2026, with receipts.
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Acosta: This is a Category 5 fuck-up of epic proportions. It is likely to go down as the worst presidency that we have ever witnessed in this country’s history. That tops the first administration that ended with an insurrection.
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
This is extraordinary, in the best sense of the word.
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Over a decade later - America's (still) most financially screwed school districts schoolfinance101.com/2026/09/26/a...
schoolfinance101.com
America’s Most Financially Disadvantaged (e.g. Still Screwed) School Districts, 2022–2024
A decade after I last published these lists, 47 districts with at least 2,000 students still have more than 1.5 times the child poverty rate of their labor market and spend less than 90% of what th…
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
This tidbit of greatness just resurfaced in my feed
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
We are so far beyond Idiocracy!!!!!
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Here's inequity & inadequacy in NY state (but not for NYC), against current average outcomes as a goal, and against a higher standard.
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
This! And here's a) the inequity and b) how the system has become even less adequate:
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
An animation of national school funding adequacy from 2009 to 2024 - against the cost of achieving national average reading and math scores between 2013 & 2015
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Restated: Most Americans realize tool for not-thinking is doing harm to institutions designed to cultivate thinking, called “schools.”
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Derek Gottlieb @derekgottliebphd.com · 18/09/2026
The same people who are willing to see a correlation between vaccine presence and autism as absolute evidence of causation are simply UNwilling to see the elimination of polio in the face of an introduced vaccine as anything other than fraud. That’s IS denial.
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This is not unreasonable to worry about. If Trump thinks the only reason Warsh voted to raise rates is that the rest of the FOMC is "political" and "hostile" and forced Warsh's hand, how do we think Trump will react, given lawfare deployed thus far against Fed members? www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Project On Government Oversight @pogo.org · 18/09/2026
Congress needs to meet the moment. Otherwise, they risk dooming all of us to more corruption, more cynicism, and a massive breach of trust between the government & the people.
pogo.org
The Corruption Vortex
When high-ranking government officials can profit from the crypto industry, prediction markets, and stock trading, corruption can thrive.
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
A look at school funding adequacy in Maryland
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
educational freedom: a safety net with the courage to hang above the people who need it
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Just arrived @jenjennings.bsky.social
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Hoarding public records doesn’t pay.
thebeam.org
Arizona Department of Education ordered to pay legal fees in ESA spending records lawsuit
After an extended fight over disclosing the records, the state has been ordered to cover attorney fees.
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
The folks arguing for pluralism based upon on other countries that fund privates always ignore that other countries have common curricula, tests, teacher cert requirements, health and safety regs, and (generally) robust anti-discrimination laws
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Brilliant, must-read @kevincarey1.bsky.social: “We need more than just a Department of Education. We need a Department of Children and Learning.”
democracyjournal.org
A Department of Education—And Then Some
American children are in trouble. After generations of improvement, test scores are declining and fewer children are showing up to class. COVID-19 knocked school systems off-kilter, disrupting the ste...
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
I used to argue constantly with faux libertarians on twitter regarding their assertion that education for a pluralistic society required providing publicly financed separate spaces for each to learn their own ideology, history and more. NO! F- NO!
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
THIS!!!!!
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
schoolfinance101.com/2026/09/13/e...
schoolfinance101.com
Edu-Grift Top 5: Ranking Charter School Financial Grift by Magnitude
Five cases, four mechanisms, one ranking: this post lines up the biggest fraud prosecutions, the biggest company-store combination, and the biggest sweeps contract in the charter sector’s his…
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Hear me out here: what if throwing literally hundreds of millions of dollars to extraordinarily smart AI engineers resulted in a myopic focus on improving AI capability without any real sense of the broader social consequences of this obsession?
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Some funding adequacy context for Abbott Elementary: Philly is the big circle (left - funding gap/outcome gap graph) and big space on lower right in map (spending adequacy toward cost of national average outcomes)
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
newsweek.com
Map shows where school vouchers have become major election issue
The debate is playing out prominently in five states: Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Texas.
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
schoolfinance101.com/2026/09/10/t...
schoolfinance101.com
The Charter School Company Store, Revisited
A decade ago I wrote about charter operators who require the people paid with public money to spend a share of it back at a store the operator itself owns. Here it is again, in four states, with th…
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
And lest you think I am blaming teachers, I am not. They are trying their best in the circumstances they find themselves in, which includes chronic underfunding of CA K-12 public schools bsky.app/profile/scho...
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
This piece insightfully unpacks the schism between DeVos' American Federation of Children and what @jenniferberkshire.bsky.social coins "school choice extremists," which, to my eye, are being QBed by orgs like Heritage, Ed Choice, Americans for Prosperity, & Goldwater.
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
framing up examples schoolfinance101.com/2026/09/10/t...
schoolfinance101.com
The Charter School Company Store, Revisited
A decade ago I wrote about charter operators who require the people paid with public money to spend a share of it back at a store the operator itself owns. Here it is again, in four states, with th…
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Charter school financial grift - real estate edition schoolfinance101.com/2026/09/08/w...
schoolfinance101.com
Buy Low, Rent High: The Charter School Real Estate Playbook
Charter school facilities financing produces two distinct, well-documented, and fixable problems: districts selling public buildings to charter operators far below market value, and charter operato…
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Jen Jennings @jenjennings.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
After reading @benjaminjriley.bsky.social's excellent piece on Alpha School, consider that public taxpayer dollars are supporting these schools in some voucher/ESA states.
alpha skills 18 life skills
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Yes, a former Alpha parent said this to me. In contrast, she said that they were struggling in Santa Barbara, that many of her fellow parents (you can guess the SES status) checked it out and found it, her words, "soulless."
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
SPECIAL REPORT Last month, Alpha School invited people to follow student social media accounts "if curious about life in our high schools." I accepted their offer. What I've found shocks me. Forget the AI and ask instead: Is Alpha Schools a cult? Follow along for a summary of my findings.
buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com
SPECIAL REPORT: My So-Called Alpha School
What is it like to be a student in Alpha School’s high school boot camp?
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Corresponding with a mother who says she enrolled her child in Alpha School so they would be surrounded by "high agency people" and when I ask what that means she sends a cut-and-paste job from ChatGPT and I just.... (gestures wildly and feels his sanity slipping further into the abyss)
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
working on some guides and toolkits here: The Charter Money Trail schoolfinance101.com/2026/09/06/t...
schoolfinance101.com
The Charter Money Trail
Following public dollars through a traditional school district is, by comparison, straightforward. District budgets are public record. Board meetings are open. Every dollar of state and local reven…
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Robert Kelchen @robertkelchen.com · 06/09/2026
The politics in Florida higher education leadership have shifted quite a bit in the last few years, as evidenced on the football field today.
espn.com
Florida's 'gator bait' cheer, banned in '20, revived at opener
Florida's "gator bait" cheer, banned in 2020 over concerns about possible racial undertones, returned to the Swamp early in the first quarter of Saturday's season opener against Florida Atlantic.
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Reposted by Bruce D. Baker
Steven Beschloss @stevenbeschloss.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
I still can’t believe that a nut job exclaimed, “They’re eating the cats, they’re eating the dogs” and millions of Americans said, “That’s the guy I want as president.”
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Today's "adequacy" illustrations - New Jersey spending relative to the cost of achieving Massachusetts average outcomes (2013-2015 levels), from 2009-2024
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Ezra Jack Skeets Wants Expanded Public PreK, 3K, and 2K @ezrahowru.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
I personally love how she calls young people a "villain" for not popping out kids. It's not like we have tons of evidence that declining birth rates can be attributed to increasing economic hardship for younger generations or anything...
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Ezra Jack Skeets Wants Expanded Public PreK, 3K, and 2K @ezrahowru.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Also, her policy prescriptions are range from "meh" to demonstrably bad. For the first two, what the required reserves are today? Here, I think it's something like 4%. But the last two are very old and tired austerity measures. The last one in particular makes me want to tap the TN ASD sign.
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Calling out the hackery of Marguerite Roza ctmirror.org/2026/09/03/e... Next time - excuse her from the damn room!!!!!
ctmirror.org
Opinion: Education expert starting with the wrong question
Why are we so eager to scrutinize the spending decisions of districts that have significantly less money to spend in the first place?
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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Oh cool, new fresh hell from Alpha School just dropped.
Screenshots from website for something called Founders School. On the left: 

Powered by Alpha School

Graduate With
A Million Dollars.
Four years. Real businesses. Real revenue. You graduate with a company, and a diploma.

On the right, list of readings, under "Session 2 - Build":

· Zero to One – Peter Thiel

· The Fountainhead – Ayn Rand

· Thinking in Bets – Annie Duke

· Shoe Dog – Phil Knight
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Bruce D. Baker @schoolfinance101.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Continuing to develop this page and state by state resources/reports/data on school funding equity, adequacy and equal opportunity schoolfinance101.com/education-ri...
schoolfinance101.com
Education Rights Project
Building out tables & graphics for public sharing on Education Rights and Enforcement in U.S. States (Claude assisted) US_State_Education_ProvisionsDownload In progress: Global Education Rights…
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