Reopening schools amid funding cuts & how to minimize the harm of remote learning

On this week's "Talk out of School" I interviewed Jasmine Gripper, Executive Director of the Alliance for Quality Education, about Governor Cuomo’s damaging and inequitable budget cuts to public schools. 

Then Josh Golin, Executive Director of Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood, explained why schools need to minimize screen time and the use of ed tech apps and should protect student privacy during remote learning. He also explained how parents can advocate for this.  Resources below.

You can also subscribe to our weekly podcast and listen to past shows here.

More resources here:

Alliance for Quality Education report: Set Up to Fail: How Cuomo’s School Cuts Target New York’s Black & Brown Students 
For more information on AQE’s planned 9/12/20 actions on school funding, contact  Maria@aqeny.org  

News on Albany school cuts  and Schenectady layoffs 

Campaign for Commercial Free Childhood’s statement urging schools to minimize screen time and ed tech 

Also: CCFC petition on this issue and an article on the subject.

Parent Toolkit for Student Privacy from CCFC and the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy 

 

"Talk out of School": Defunding the Police and Investing in our Schools instead

Please check out the latest "Talk out of School" podcast featuring Alex Vitale, professor at Brooklyn College and coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project, and Jasmine Gripper, Executive Director of Alliance for Quality Education. 

They discuss how over-policing in NYC and elsewhere has contributed to the unrest and violence that has erupted throughout the city and the nation in recent days, how the Mayor's proposed budget cuts the NYPD budget less than 1%, while cutting education by 3%, and why the city should instead be disinvesting in the police and School Safety Agents, and use the savings to hire more teachers, social workers, and counselors instead.

Alex Vitale also spoke about the secret gang database, created by the NYPD with  help from School Safety Agents, and Jasmine Gripper countered the false claims of Gov. Cuomo that he has worked for more equitable school funding while the opposite is true.

Thanks to AQE, you can send a message to the Mayor about de-funding the police here.  For more information on this issue, check out the budget demands of  Communities United for Police Reform (CPR)  and  The End of Policing by Alex Vitale , available for download as an e-book for free.