Out d’Coup LIVE | David Backer - Ending ”Toxic Financing” of our public schools

On this episode of Out d'Coup LIVE, I welcome David Backer to the show. David is an associate professor of educational foundations, policy studies, and leadership at West Chester University. He writes a weekly newsletter called Schooling in Socialist America and tweets at @schooldaves.

We'll be talking about his recent article in Dissent Magazine, "Toxic Finance." In that piece, David looks into how outbreaks of COVID-19 in schools across the country exposed the crisis in our schools' long-ignored infrastructure problems. But more than that, he shows how the way the United States finances school building improvements and maintenance worsened the problem. Another case of hiding the ball so students, teachers, staff, and parents get stuck with inefficient, inadequate, and unequal schools. We’ll also talk about some recent proposals - such as the Green New Deal for Public Schools - that would begin to take on the financial barons that profit off public education for personal gain.

Links:

• David Backer, "Toxic Finance," Dissent Magazine
• David Backer's newsletter, "Schooling in Socialist America"