Craig Garrett on the need for human-centered schools rather than learning based upon AI.

 Craig Garrett is a parent leader in District 14 whose group, District 14 Families for Human Learning, has just created a new website here.  You can sign up for more info at the website.  Below are the comments that he delivered at the D14 CEC meeting last month.  If you agree, please sign our petition for a moratorium on the use of AI in schools here.

    Last night I delivered the following remarks at the end of District 14's CEC meeting, a few minutes after Superintendent Cintron glowingly described his forthcoming "AI vision statement". The first half of the meeting was spent prioritizing urgent funding requests from individual schools (a process one CEC member referred to as "the hunger games"). Mostly of those requests were about fixing problems like inoperable bathrooms and broken PA systems. It really underlined the absurdity of signing multimillion-dollar contracts for unproven ed-tech while our schools can't afford functioning bathrooms. 

    Let's all cast our minds back one year, to early January 2025. At Coney Island, long-shot mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was doing the Polar Bear Plunge in a suit and tie. At movie theaters across the country, kids were flocking to see Moana 2. And from every direction, we were hearing about a revolutionary new technology that was about to transform our lives.

 Back then, the tech industry's story about artificial intelligence was thrilling, provocative, and told entirely in the future tense. Business leaders and elected officials rushed to incorporate AI into their operations. There was a sense of urgency, an eagerness to get on board this magic technology that would solve our most stubborn problems and transport us to a brilliant future.

    Well, I'm here with a message from the present. The  flourishing we were promised has not arrived. We're waking up to the fact that this technology is NOT being developed to extend human capacity or expand human knowledge — because those are not the tech industry's priorities. In 2025 we saw the leading AI companies drop their commitments to democracy and equality,  dismantle their safeguards and moderation, and aggressively fight off any form of regulation, no matter how sensible.

    And unlike in January 2025, we now have real-world data on how their products are performing. In “AI-enabled” classrooms, students are experiencing isolation, cognitive atrophy, and loss of focus. Outside classrooms, LLMs are endorsing suicide, inducing psychosis, and empowering bullies. This is happening because tech companies have decided to prioritize user engagement over safety, dependence over efficacy. And it turns out those decisions are antithetical to human flourishing.

    Just three weeks ago, the Eric Adams administration tried to push four AI ed-tech contracts through the PEP. And they failed, to our great relief, saving NYCPS millions of dollars. Let's hope 2026 is the year our school leaders wake up to the fact that ed tech in its current form is a not just a waste of money, it's a direct threat to our values, our humanity, and our children. 

How I was quoted about Zohran's reversal on Mayoral control -- and my full remarks

Just a quick  update to let you know that yesterday, Zohran Mamdani announced that he was appointing District 3 Superintendent Kamar Samuels as his Chancellor. 

He also said he was renouncing his previous position that Mayoral control needs reform, expressed frequently during his campaign, and that he would ask the Legislature to renew it in June.  He did mention some potential tweaks, to  “improve the parent coordinator position to be a meaningful organizer of parents” and to “restructure meetings so that working parents can actually attend them.”  You can see his entire announcement here.

Both these suggestions, while potentially promising, are a far cry from the fundamental reforms that many parents, teachers and advocates believe should be made to ensure significant checks and balances in the school governance system. 

DOE is unlike any other city agency, in that there is no significant local input into educational decision-making, either from the City Council nor an independent school board, the latter which 98% of districts across the  country already enjoy.  School boards were created to try to take the politics out of education, and though this is essentially impossible, one-man rule in NYC has too often led to wasteful and corrupt contracts, backroom deals, irrational policies and faulty implementation.

I was sitting with my family at lunch when I was alerted to Mamdani’s statements through various chat groups.  I listened to his remarks and began to tweet.  I thought it was important for someone to speak out quickly to counter his claim – that is too often the conventional wisdom --- that Mayoral control leads to more accountability, when the reverse is true, as I explained in my briefing  to the NYC Bar Association.

Surprisingly, both the NY Daily News and the NY Times quoted my remarks in their stories about the Mamdani reversal – but only part of them, so  I’d like to share the whole thread with you, which began in response to a tweet from reporter Ross Barkan: 

@Ross Barkan

Mamdani announces he will support the system of mayoral control after his past disavowal of the system. He promises more input from parents.

 

@leoniehaimson

Very troubling. Every mayor has promised more parent input and then when push comes to shove, they just do what they want. Any system with no locally based checks & balances is inherently dysfunctional & anti- democratic @ZohranKMamdani

 

It has also led to poor policy decisions under every mayor since Bloomberg, and too many backroom deals in which kids needs have been sacrificed for political ends. 

 

One man rule has not worked for our federal government as we’ve seen clearly in 2025. No matter how much @ZohranKMamdani has progressive positions or values, it will not work well for @nycschools either

 

This apparent reversal is indeed an inauspicious beginning to Mamdani’s mayoralty.  I want to assure you that in 2026, we will continue to advocate for real accountability, transparency, and spending focused on what research and experience shows actually works  – including smaller classes – rather than unproven and often risky fads, like AI.

I hope you will help us in achieving these goals as well, by supporting our work in 2026.

 Happy New Year, Leonie