Special guest on Wednesday's "Talk out of School" - Randi Weingarten of the AFT

Join us on Wednesday from 10-11AM on WBAI 99.5 FM or at WBAI.org for "Talk out of School" when I'll interview Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers,  about what schools should and should not be trying to do during the time of coronavirus, and how to prevent remote instruction from overstretching and over stressing the capabilities of teachers and families.  Also, how the crisis threatens to lead to more education cuts, to further undermine student privacy and more.  

Please also call in with your questions at 212-209-2877.

What the Trump budget cuts would do to class size and "priceless moments" in the classroom

Trump would cut $9 billion from education -- while transferring millions of dollars into private hands through the expansion of charter schools and vouchers.  His cuts could imperil NYC class sizes, already far too large.  The biggest proposed cut in education is the total elimination of nearly $2.3 billion of Title IIA funds.  Of those funds, $101 million come to NYC and are exclusively spent on reducing class size in the public schools, paying for the salaries of approximately 1000 classroom teachers. (The DOE spreadsheet is here.)

See below, a video interview with Katie Kurjakovic, a Queens teacher from PS 11,  who explains that the addition of one classroom teacher is able to reduce class size from about 32 to 25 across a grade at her school -- which makes all the difference in the world in being able to provide her ESL kids the attention they need.  She describes the "priceless moment" when she helped one of her 6 year old students learn how to read:

Why do educators make smaller class sizes their top wish?

It’s because of “the moments.” For every child who is added, I lose the ability to give all my students the moments they need with me. These are moments when the important work happens.

These are the moments when I sit next to John, one of my students. We tap out words together every day. Then the day finally arrives when he looks at me with his face shining and says, “I read that by myself!” It clicks, and he never stops reading.

More of the interview is here; and also see Diane Ravitch on the appalling impact of these cuts in an article called "The Demolition of American Education" in this month's NY Review of Books, explaining how, among other things, "The cuts to funds for reducing class sizes will have an immediate negative effect."  

As Ms.Kurjakovic says, "Based on its budget plan, this administration apparently just doesn’t care. But I do care, and so do my fellow teachers, so do their parents — and so does every child who has lost those moments they deserve to huge class sizes."

AFT statement on inBloom and new video critique out of the UK

Randi Weingarten, President of the AFT

On Friday, in an official statement, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers,  expressed her concerns about inBloom Inc., and how inBloom needs to address the growing public distrust concerning its credibility and security protection:

 "Any potential inBloom has to improve and personalize learning is being overshadowed by a growing lack of public trust in its early communications and operations, and genuine concerns about the security, privacy, sharing and exploitation of data. The AFT raised many of these issues originally, and we, along with parents and teachers, continue to have many concerns about the privacy and security of student and teacher data. We have sent a letter to the funders of inBloom seeking clarification."

"These privacy and security concerns go well beyond inBloom. With a growing marketplace emerging for data collection, storage, analysis and monetization—both for good and for ill—we must be more vigilant than ever about the privacy and security rights of students, teachers and the American people. The rights and responsibilities of parents, students, teachers and school officials in protecting sensitive data, and in determining how others can use that data, must be transparent and well-regulated, and city, state and federal officials have key roles to play."

Today,  InfoSecurity magazine covers the inBloom controversy, cites our bill in the NY legislature to block this data-mining scheme, and describes how the concern over student privacy has spread to the UK:  Amazon Cloud Servers Host Data on Millions of SchoolChildren .

And now RNIF News, based in the UK has posted a striking video with an in depth look at inBloom, with material taken from our fact sheets and website; see below.  It’s a good examination of the issue but there are two major errors:

It is not true that 11 million students currently have their data uploaded into inBloom.  As far as we know, New York and Illinois are the only states currently sharing data.  Illinois is sharing data only for two districts, Bloomington and Normal, although the state plans to expand into other districts including Chicago starting in January 2014.  (see the list here.) Jefferson County school district in Colorado still plans to go ahead next year sharing student data, while Massachusetts (for Everett schools) and North Carolina (for Guilford co. schools) say they are reconsidering their plans. (See the Reuters update here.)

And our NY State bill would not hold the state responsible for breaches, as the video says, but would require inBloom or any company that receives and stores student data to be financially and legally responsible for breaches by indemnifying the state.

Taking the stage today at the AFT convention in Seattle...

The most dangerous man in America.

Check it out at the Huffington Post!