David I. Backer is an associate professor of education policy at Seton Hall University whose research, teaching, and organizing focus on ideology and school finance. A former high school teacher, his research has appeared in Harvard Educational Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of Education Policy, Journal of Educational Human Resources, Journal of Educational Administration and History, as well as popular venues like Crain's Business Chicago, Phenomenal World, African American Policy Forum, The American Prospect, n+1, Dissent, and Jacobin. He lives in Philadelphia.

Praise For As Public As Possible:“Backer is an excellent tour guide showing us not only the inequities in how we pay for schools, but also how the system supports and perpetuates them. Like a docent at the Johnstown Flood Museum, he helps us admire the scale of the disaster, while also suggesting smart reforms to prevent another. Astute, frank, angry—he’s exactly the guide you want for this trip.”—Tom Sgouros, fellow, The Policy Lab, Brown University“David I. Backer has written the book that school finance consultants hope you’ll never read. As Public as Possible brings to light the privatizers, profiteers, and policy pushers who have long treated education not as a public good, but as a revenue stream for the already-rich. With humor, rigor, and radical hope, Backer demands that we stop fighting over scraps and start demanding the feast—a public education system as fully public as our children deserve.”—Noliwe Rooks, author of Integrated and Cutting School and L. Herbert Ballou University Professor and chair of Africana Studies at Brown University“David Backer has accomplished the seemingly impossible here, making the complex issue of school finance not just accessible, but provocative and inspiring. You’ll come away from this book convinced of the urgent necessity of a radical transformation in how we pay for public education and armed with a road map for how to get there.”—Jennifer Berkshire, co-author of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door and The Education Wars“A valuable guide.”—Jacobin

David I. Backer is an associate professor of education policy at Seton Hall University whose research, teaching, and organizing focus on ideology and school finance. A former high school teacher, his research has appeared in Harvard Educational Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of Education Policy, Journal of Educational Human Resources, Journal of Educational Administration and History, as well as popular venues like Crain's Business Chicago, Phenomenal World, African American Policy Forum, The American Prospect, n+1, Dissent, and Jacobin. He lives in Philadelphia.

Praise For As Public As Possible:“Backer is an excellent tour guide showing us not only the inequities in how we pay for schools, but also how the system supports and perpetuates them. Like a docent at the Johnstown Flood Museum, he helps us admire the scale of the disaster, while also suggesting smart reforms to prevent another. Astute, frank, angry—he’s exactly the guide you want for this trip.”—Tom Sgouros, fellow, The Policy Lab, Brown University“David I. Backer has written the book that school finance consultants hope you’ll never read. As Public as Possible brings to light the privatizers, profiteers, and policy pushers who have long treated education not as a public good, but as a revenue stream for the already-rich. With humor, rigor, and radical hope, Backer demands that we stop fighting over scraps and start demanding the feast—a public education system as fully public as our children deserve.”—Noliwe Rooks, author of Integrated and Cutting School and L. Herbert Ballou University Professor and chair of Africana Studies at Brown University“David Backer has accomplished the seemingly impossible here, making the complex issue of school finance not just accessible, but provocative and inspiring. You’ll come away from this book convinced of the urgent necessity of a radical transformation in how we pay for public education and armed with a road map for how to get there.”—Jennifer Berkshire, co-author of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door and The Education Wars“A valuable guide.”—Jacobin

David I. Backer is an associate professor of education policy at Seton Hall University whose research, teaching, and organizing focus on ideology and school finance. A former high school teacher, his research has appeared in Harvard Educational Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of Education Policy, Journal of Educational Human Resources, Journal of Educational Administration and History, as well as popular venues like Crain's Business Chicago, Phenomenal World, African American Policy Forum, The American Prospect, n+1, Dissent, and Jacobin. He lives in Philadelphia.

Praise For As Public As Possible:“Backer is an excellent tour guide showing us not only the inequities in how we pay for schools, but also how the system supports and perpetuates them. Like a docent at the Johnstown Flood Museum, he helps us admire the scale of the disaster, while also suggesting smart reforms to prevent another. Astute, frank, angry—he’s exactly the guide you want for this trip.”—Tom Sgouros, fellow, The Policy Lab, Brown University“David I. Backer has written the book that school finance consultants hope you’ll never read. As Public as Possible brings to light the privatizers, profiteers, and policy pushers who have long treated education not as a public good, but as a revenue stream for the already-rich. With humor, rigor, and radical hope, Backer demands that we stop fighting over scraps and start demanding the feast—a public education system as fully public as our children deserve.”—Noliwe Rooks, author of Integrated and Cutting School and L. Herbert Ballou University Professor and chair of Africana Studies at Brown University“David Backer has accomplished the seemingly impossible here, making the complex issue of school finance not just accessible, but provocative and inspiring. You’ll come away from this book convinced of the urgent necessity of a radical transformation in how we pay for public education and armed with a road map for how to get there.”—Jennifer Berkshire, co-author of A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door and The Education Wars“A valuable guide.”—Jacobin