Emeritus Stanford professor. History & sociology of US education. Latest book is The Emergent Genius of American Higher Ed. Blog at https://xitter.cf/t.co/0xbH5pzHYI.
Palo Alto, CA
Joined November 2016
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David Labaree retweeted
My new blog post is an essay I wrote recently and tried to publish in several different venues, without success. So I'm publishing it here on my blog, where editorial standards are a bit more flexible.
After spending many years decrying the rampant credentialism in the modern structure of schooling, I'm beginning to think about its possible upsides. Yes, it undercuts academic learning by focusing instead on the accumulation of grades, credits, and degrees, and it also subverts meritocracy by rewarding form over content.
But consider some of the benefits of credentialism both for students and for society. It helps students gain a degree of autonomy within the prison-like confines of the hyper-controlling system of schooling that they must endure for so many years of their lives. And it also benefits society, by encouraging students to exercise creativity, develop initiative, and learn how to operate independently within a rule-bound organization without directly challenging its norms. Credentialism offers both a jail break and a course in entrepreneurship.
davidlabaree.com
David Labaree retweeted
Something strange is happening with self-reported height among men: There aren’t enough 5’11” men, and there are too many 6’0” men. Hmmm…
stevestewartwilliams.com/p/e…
David Labaree retweeted
The cheap green lie
You are told that solar and wind are cheap
But you need near-100% backup when no sun or wind, paying for two systems
Data for 2025 shows that
cramming in more solar and wind makes electricity overall more and more costly
Sources:
Electricity prices, households and industry, 2025
iea.org/data-and-statistics/…
Solar and wind generation, electricity use and consumption weights
iea.org/data-and-statistics/…
Solar and wind for countries without IEA 2025 data
ember-energy.org/data
Electricity trade partners, plus industry prices for Norway, Albania, Iceland and Kosovo
ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/en…
US industry price
eia.gov/electricity/annual
Australia, IEA 2021 prices updated with official price indices
abs.gov.au/statistics/econom…
South Africa industry price
eskom.co.za/wp-content/uploa…
Taiwan industry tariff
taipower.com.tw
Egypt industry tariff
egyptera.org/en/TarrifAug202…
Tunisia tariffs (archived copy, the STEG site is unreachable)
web.archive.org/web/20250614…
Azerbaijan industry tariff
regulator.gov.az/en/istehlak…
2025 tariff changes applied to IEA 2024 prices
Pakistan: nepra.org.pk
Thailand: erc.or.th
Ghana: purc.com.gh
Paraguay: ande.gov.py
Kazakhstan: stat.gov.kz/en/industries/ec…
GlobalPetrolPrices 2025 averages for 18 countries, read from archived 2025 pages
globalpetrolprices.com/elect…
web.archive.org
Sri Lanka 2025 tariff changes
pucsl.gov.lk/end-user-tariff…
Indonesia solar and wind estimated from official 2025 capacity
esdm.go.id/id/media-center/a…
Statista 2025 averages for China, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, Singapore, Peru, Argentina and South Africa (data from GlobalPetrolPrices)
statista.com/statistics/1369… (business prices worldwide)
statista.com/statistics/1461… (household prices worldwide)
statista.com/statistics/1173… (Latin America business)
statista.com/statistics/1123… (Latin America households)
statista.com/statistics/1373… (China business)
statista.com/statistics/1372… (Mexico business)
statista.com/statistics/1372… (Mexico households)
statista.com/statistics/1617… (South Africa households)
David Labaree retweeted
This 👇
Sustainably financing Nordic-level public services/pensions needs high labour force participation, long working lives, and broad taxes.
Sweden raises the age automatically by cohort. For my age group, it’ll be 69. Debt-to-GDP 34%
pensionsmyndigheten.se/other…
Denmark is raising its retirement age to 70. French election candidates pledge to reducing it to 60 or 62.
Denmark's debt to GDP ratio is 27%; France's is 117%.
You reap what you sow.
cnn.com/2025/05/23/business/…
David Labaree retweeted
Friendliest States Ranked :
🇺🇸 1. Minnesota
🇺🇸 2. Tennessee
🇺🇸 3. South Carolina
🇺🇸 4. Texas
🇺🇸 5. Wyoming
🇺🇸 6. Indiana
🇺🇸 7. Colorado
🇺🇸 8. Kansas
🇺🇸 9. Oklahoma
🇺🇸 10. Hawaii
🇺🇸 11. Ohio
🇺🇸 12. Louisiana
🇺🇸 13. Nebraska
🇺🇸 14. Illinois
🇺🇸 15. Idaho
🇺🇸 16. Georgia
🇺🇸 17. New Mexico
🇺🇸 18. Pennsylvania
🇺🇸 19. Kentucky
🇺🇸 20. South Dakota
🇺🇸 21. Alabama
🇺🇸 22. Missouri
🇺🇸 23. Mississippi
🇺🇸 24. Oregon
🇺🇸 25. North Dakota
🇺🇸 26. Wisconsin
🇺🇸 27. Maryland
🇺🇸 28. Michigan
🇺🇸 29. Iowa
🇺🇸 30. West Virginia
🇺🇸 31. Maine
🇺🇸 32. Utah
🇺🇸 33. North Carolina
🇺🇸 34. Vermont
🇺🇸 35. Virginia
🇺🇸 36. Montana
🇺🇸 37. Alaska
🇺🇸 38. Connecticut
🇺🇸 39. Arizona
🇺🇸 40. California
🇺🇸 41. Rhode Island
🇺🇸 42. Florida
🇺🇸 43. Nevada
🇺🇸 44. New Hampshire
🇺🇸 45. Washington
🇺🇸 46. New Jersey
🇺🇸 47. Massachusetts
🇺🇸 48. Delaware
🇺🇸 49. Arkansas
🇺🇸 50. New York
U.S. overall — Minnesota ranks friendliest; New York ranks least friendly in this tourist and survey ranking
Note: Based on tourist feedback, social media surveys, and politeness indexes. Rankings are subjective and vary by source. SmartAsset’s 2026 study using time spent socializing, volunteering, and helping others ranks Montana, Utah, and Wyoming highest instead.
Source: World Population Review / tourist survey rankings and DataPandas Politeness Index, 2024–2026; SmartAsset friendliest states study 2026 for alternative method
David Labaree retweeted
How much gold was mined in the history of mankind? Have a look. Very fun article - have a look at the pictures. Source: buff.ly/2FxMJMJ
David Labaree retweeted
This is a problem: "Roughly 30% of science, technology, engineering and maths PhD dissertations from US universities this year contained text generated by artificial intelligence, according to an analysis of more than 226,000 dissertations."
nature.com/articles/d41586-0…
David Labaree retweeted
Young Europeans are being screwed, writes Niall Ferguson. But they’re pointing their fingers at the wrong people.
David Labaree retweeted
Dwight Eisenhower (born today 1890) weeps in 1952 while recalling those who died under his command in World War II:
David Labaree retweeted
Rearranging Europe. The most populated country gets the largest country. I quite like a few of the innovations this map brings. Austrian Portugal? Tell me more! Norwegian Croatia? Yes, please! Poland finally gets a direct Russian border again? Yikes.
Source: buff.ly/5vySlxK
David Labaree retweeted
Oct 7, 1763: King George III drew a line down the spine of the Appalachian Mountains and told American colonists they couldn't cross it.
Britain had just won the French and Indian War and taken control of everything east of the Mississippi. That spring, Native nations led by the Ottawa war chief Pontiac rose up across the Great Lakes and Ohio Valley and captured or attacked British forts all over the frontier. London wanted to stop the bloodshed and avoid paying for endless Indian wars.
So the Proclamation of 1763 reserved all the land west of the mountains for Native peoples. Colonists already living out there were told to leave. Nobody could buy Native land except through the Crown.
The colonists were furious. Many of them had fought in the war specifically to open up that land. Veterans had been promised land grants out there. Speculators had already staked claims. One of those speculators was George Washington, who privately called the proclamation a temporary measure and kept quietly surveying western land anyway.
Thousands of settlers ignored it and crossed the mountains regardless. The line never really held. But it was one of the first times Americans felt London was deciding their future without them, and that feeling kept growing for the next 13 years.
David Labaree retweeted
Choosin the wrong kind of Texas. How to redistribute money from the poor to the rich through education. nytimes.com/2026/10/07/opini… via @NYTOpinion @DianeRavitch @Larryferlazzo @shankerinst
David Labaree retweeted
The Ottoman Empire at its greatest historical extent.
Credit: Maven Mapping & The World In Maps
Size Comparison of Roman & Ottoman Empires At Their Peak: brilliantmaps.com/roman-vs-o…
David Labaree retweeted
A new piece in the Financial Times created a great visualization of the results from this study.
TL;DR: Rent control helps people whose rents get limited, but it hurts everyone else. It pushes up rents, pushes down new building, and makes cities worse.
It is horrible policy.
