A pretty amazing meeting of the Panel for Educational Policy happened last night. The three AI contracts did NOT get approved by the Panel, for EPS/Amira (withdrawn or turned down for the third time!), Lumi and Kiddom., despite the push by the Chancellor and the DOE officials to keep rapidly expanding that risky technology in classrooms around the city.
Thanks so much to the parent leaders, the teacher and student who spoke clearly and eloquently in opposition – and also to many of you who sent comments to the Panel about this critical issue. It shows that the AI juggernaut can be stopped with enough organized opposition.
The Brooklyn BP rep, Camille Casaretti, thanked the many people who wrote in with comments. Mine are posted on the blog below. If you wrote in and would like to have your comments shared, please send them to me at leonie@classsizematters.org and I’ll post them as well. Soon I’ll post a video of those who spoke so well last night.
Also approved was a resolution urging the DOE and SCA to create more space to relieve overcrowding and allow schools to lower class size, and a resolution against renewing contracts for another five years for the same group of bus companies that have provided such unreliable service for the last 45 years.
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My name is Leonie Haimson, I am co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy. I was appointed by the Chancellor as a member of AI working group last June, which was tasked with creating guidelines and guardrails for the use of this technology, which is controversial with many privacy experts because of the way AI tools data mine the personal information of students to improve their products, which is illegal under the NY State student privacy law.
Many parents and teachers are also concerned because of the growing evidence that the use of AI in the classroom hampers the development of cognitive skills, creativity, and critical thinking, all central to learning, while undermining the human connection essential to a quality education.
Yet since the AI working group was appointed, it has been sidelined. We’ve been kept in the dark and essentially stonewalled – denied any of the information we need to move forward, while the DOE goes full speed ahead, expanding the risky use of AI without any of the necessary precautions.
One of our first requests to DOE was the list of AI products currently used in schools, along with their privacy policies. Yet the DOE official briefing us refused to provide this list, saying they could not do so because of non-disclosure agreements with the vendors.
We also asked for materials that DOE has used to train teachers in the use of AI, which the same official claimed had been provided to more than 84,000 teachers and other staff. Yet these materials were denied us as well.
I urge you to vote no on the contract for the EPS chatbot and other AI tools until DOE establishes rigorous privacy protections for their use, including independent security audits and privacy impact assessments, along with peer-reviewed research showing their positive impact on learning. DOE should also explain how the serious risks of AI use related to algorithmic bias andtheir negative impact on the environment and the climate will be prevented.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
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