Blurbs/endorsements: Personal connections/potential blurbers include: Astra Taylor, Malcolm Harris, Pennsylvania State Senator Nikil Saval, and Eleni Schirmer. Media track record: Backer writes regularly for the popular and progressive press, including Dissent, n+1, Jacobin, The American Prospect, The African American Policy Forum, Viewpoint, and the Bucks County Beacon. Platform: Backer's newsletter, "Schooling in Socialist America" has a dedicated following reaching teacher organizers, superintendents, economics researchers, bankers, union organizers, policy experts, and students, and can be used to promote the book. He was recently interviewed by Education Week reporter Mark Lieberman for their "Big Ideas" issue on school finance. Lieberman specifically mentioned that the idea for the Education Week issue was inspired by Backer's newsletter. Political/movement connections: In his capacity as a researcher and organizer, Backer has advised teacher movements, socialist candidates for office, and socialist officials at the local, state, and federal levels on issues related to school finance, focused specifically on facilities and climate change. He drafted State Senator Nikil Saval's campaign platform on school funding and was a co-author on A Green Stimulus for K-12 Schools, laying out the details of what would become Rep. Jamaal Bowman's Green New Deal for Schools legislation.

He is also active in Philadelphia DSA, and is well connected to national DSA (over 75k members nationally). Academic success: The author of a notable monograph, his research has appeared in Harvard Educational Review, British Journal of Sociology of Education, Critical Education, Educational Theory, The Journal of Educational Human Resources, and Issues in Teacher Education.