Latest news with #RandiWeingarten
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
DNC leader faces growing scrutiny amid party turmoil
Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Ken Martin is under pressure amid growing turmoil within the party's ranks six months into President Trump's second administration. The committee has been plagued by party infighting that has spilled out into the open in recent weeks. Last week, two influential union heads — American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees President Lee Saunders — stepped down from their posts at the committee. Meanwhile, former Vice Chair David Hogg announced he would not run for his post again amid internal disagreements with party leadership. And on top of the infighting, reports have surfaced the committee is strapped for cash amid frustration among donors. The developments have painted a picture of weakness, barring Democrats from fully uniting behind Trump. Some critics argue the issues can be traced back to Martin, but others insist it's a reflection of the Democratic ecosystem as a whole. 'Ken Martin is stepping into a really difficult situation right now, and I would say he was elected and they handed him a mop and a bucket,' said Brian Lemek, a Democratic strategist and founder and executive director of Defend the Vote. Martin assumed his position in the top role at the DNC in February after defeating then-Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler in a competitive chair's race. His election came months after the party's sweeping losses across the board in 2024. His allies note Martin hit the ground running, unveiling his 50-state strategy in April. Martin pledged the DNC would donate a baseline of $17,500 to state parties and territories, marking a $5,000-per-month increase over the committee's previous contribution. Martin has also seen a number of special election victories during his tenure, including in Iowa, Nebraska and Pennsylvania. 'The man is everywhere,' said New Jersey-based DNC member Laura Matos, noting Martin's recent trip to the state, which is holding its governor's race in November. 'New Jersey doesn't regularly get the love and the attention for the purposes of the things we have going on here,' she said. 'He kicked off canvasses when he was here.' Still, recent polling paints a picture of a deeply unsatisfied Democratic base. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released Thursday found 62 percent of Democrats said 'party leaders should be replaced.' Forty-nine percent of Democratic respondents said they were 'unsatisfied with current leadership,' while 41 percent said they disagreed with the sentiment that they were unsatisfied with leadership. And most of the coverage surrounding the committee has been dominated by intraparty fighting that has spilled out into the open, something Democratic lawmakers are cognizant of. In a post on the social platform X following Weingarten's exit earlier this week, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said he wants 'to build a party with a big tent and inclusion, not subtraction and pushing people out.' '[Weingarten] understands the need for trades schools & apprenticeships more than anyone in our party [and Hogg] the need for primary competition and generational change,' Khanna said. And earlier this month, Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said on X he 'would love to see a day go by that the DNC doesn't do something embarrassing and off-message' ahead of the vote to redo Hogg and Pennsylvania state Sen. Malcolm Kenyatta's (D) vice chair elections. 'Everyone should be focused on killing the cuts to healthcare & food assistance & education. And everyone should focus on next November,' Pocan said, adding 'internal bullshit done externally is stupid.' New York state Sen. James Skoufis (D), who ran against Martin for chair earlier this year and is a member of the committee's People's Cabinet, said Hogg is at 'the nexus' of the intraparty tensions. 'There's a lot of noise being generated by a very small handful of what I'll call backbiters who have some axe to grind,' Skoufis said. Saunders and Weingarten endorsed Wikler in the party chair's race earlier this year, and both were later removed by Martin from the DNC's influential Rules and Bylaws Committee. Both cited disagreements with Martin in their letters announcing their departures. Not every member who was removed by Martin from the Rules and Bylaws Committee has taken that approach. Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones (D), who is a DNC member who was removed from the committee by Martin, said he still backs the chair. Jones argued that the internal tensions spilling out into the open only serve as a distraction for Democrats in their battle to take on Trump and Republicans. 'I think people need to separate their emotion from the work that needs to be done because the infighting that we're seeing, it's taking our focus off of the bigger picture at hand,' Jones told The Hill. 'For us to be in this moment and we're wasting our time talking about power and position when we should be talking about policy and people. That is how we're going to win elections,' he said. John Verdejo, a North Carolina-based DNC member who supports Martin, said the changes Martin brought with him to the committee are to be expected given the switch-up in leadership. 'I attribute that to real life where there's new management and when new management comes into any work situation, they want to change things up the way they see fit and that's what happened, especially in the case of the two labor presidents,' Verdejo said. 'Our problem is we're so quick, DNC members, or Democrats, really, if we want to complain, instead of complaining to the person aggrieved us, in this case Ken Martin, we're so quick to tweet it out or talk to the press about it instead of talking to the person that aggrieved us,' he continued. The DNC has also been subject to questions about its finances as it prepares for the midterms next year. The committee entered May with $18 million cash on hand, compared to the Republican National Committee, which started the month with $67.4 million in the bank. Additionally, in the first four months of 2025, only three donors gave $100,000 or more to the committee. A New York Times report published earlier this week highlighted reported concerns from Democrats about the committee's finances, but others note the smaller dollar donors should not be ignored. 'The DNC historically has too exclusively prioritized larger donors at the expense of smaller donors and that is no longer happening,' Skoufis said. On Friday, the committee announced it had raised $40 million during Martin's first four months as chair. In May, the DNC said it outpaced grassroots fundraising in May 2023 and 2024 and raised twice as much in grassroots dollars compared to May 2017. 'Powered by our grassroots community, the DNC has just set a new record for most money raised in the first four months under a new Chair — ever,' Martin said in a statement. 'What matters is winning elections, making Democrats competitive everywhere, expanding our tent, and putting our party on the right path.' Others within the DNC say the lower-than-usual numbers from larger donors are to be expected following 2024. 'Large donors made it clear that they were not going to give to the DNC until we got our act together. I think we knew that going into this,' Jones said, adding he believes donors will come back. 'But they're not going to come back if they still see a disconnect internally,' he said. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
India Today
5 days ago
- Business
- India Today
400,000 US teachers to get AI training by 2023, thanks to OpenAI, Microsoft
In a massive move to reshape classrooms across the US, OpenAI has joined hands with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Microsoft, and Anthropic to launch the National Academy for AI Instruction. The aim? To train around 400,000 school teachers in using artificial intelligence tools by project, which kicked off with $10 million in support from OpenAI (including Rs 8 million in funding and Rs 2 million worth of tech resources), will focus on helping teachers learn, build, and lead in using AI in K–12 THE AI ACADEMY OFFERS TEACHERSThe academy will run workshops, provide online training, and help teachers create their own AI tools tailored to the classroom. Teachers will also get early access to OpenAI's education tools and support on how to bring AI into their schools the right way. The first campus is coming up in New York City, with plans for regional hubs across the US. One in every ten US educators is expected to benefit from the CEO Sam Altman said in a statement, 'Educators make the difference, and they should lead this next shift with AI. We're here to support them.'AFT president Randi Weingarten added that while AI is powerful, teachers must be in control: 'It's our job to make sure AI serves our students and society, not the other way around.''STUDY TOGETHER': A NEW CHATGPT TOOL FOR STUDENTSOpenAI is also reportedly testing a feature called 'Study Together' in ChatGPT. Instead of giving answers directly, this new tool encourages users to think and solve problems could work like a group study session inside ChatGPT and might offer a real alternative to Google's company hasn't announced a release date or whether it will be available for free users.- Ends
Time Magazine
7 days ago
- Business
- Time Magazine
AI Giants Are Pouring $23M Into Teacher Training Programs
AI tools have become deeply embedded in how many students learn and complete schoolwork—and that usage is only poised to increase. On Tuesday, the American Federation of Teachers announced an AI training hub for educators, backed by $23 million from Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic. The AFT is the second-largest teachers' union, representing 1.8 million teachers and educational staffers across the country. Their training hub will open in New York City this fall, featuring workshops that will educate teachers on how to use AI tools for tasks like generating lesson plans and quizzes, or writing emails to parents. Microsoft is providing $12.5 million for AI teacher training over the next five years. OpenAI is contributing $10 million. 'AI is already in our schools, impacting how lessons are planned and how students learn in and out of classrooms. We have to ensure educators, parents, and students shape how AI is being used, so it's not simply imposed on them,' Randi Weingarten, AFT's president, wrote on Bluesky on Tuesday. AI's integration into learning is a hotly contested subject. Some teachers say AI tools are helping them manage vast workloads and give students more personalized instruction. Others worry that Big Tech companies are using AI to enrich themselves at the expense of teachers' jobs and students' critical thinking development. 'Look at the real agenda of the tech billionaires - even more business control over education,' wrote Lois Weiner, an education professor and teacher union activist, on Bluesky. And while the Trump administration has slashed and frozen funding for education, it has heavily promoted AI education. Trump signed an executive order in April calling for AI integration throughout K-12 education. Linda McMahon, the education secretary, said in April that using AI to help teach first-graders or 'even pre-Ks' would be a 'wonderful thing.' (Although notably, she referred to AI as 'A1.') Read More: ChatGPT May Be Eroding Critical Thinking Skills, According to a New MIT Study Growing Impact AI companies have aggressively pushed their tools into classrooms and into the hands of young people. Google recently rolled out a version of its Gemini chatbot specifically for users under 13, and also partnered with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to deploy chatbots to over 100,000 high schoolers. Anthropic is touting Claude as a study companion, and implemented 'AI-enabled learning' in several universities. Accordingly, students have adopted AI for schoolwork at a rapid rate: the percentage of teens using ChatGPT for schoolwork has doubled over the last two years, Pew found in January. Sam Hiner, the executive director of the Young People's Alliance, a policy advocacy nonprofit, says that AI has already had detrimental effects on many students across the country. 'We're seeing schools provision ChatGPT for free to students—and students turn around and write their essays with ChatGPT and make one or two changes before submitting them,' he says. 'We've heard that directly from our members at YPA that young people feel like they aren't learning anymore because ChatGPT is such an easy crutch.' But Hiner concedes that AI training may be important for students as these tools become increasingly central to the modern economy. 'I think this training will have to not only focus on what you can do with AI, but how to avoid some of those very likely pitfalls that are easy to fall into because of the convenience that they offer,' he says. Elizabeth Laird, the director of equity in civic technology at the Center for Democracy & Technology, also hopes that this AFT training will address AI's many risks. '[AI] can diminish trust between students and educators, spread inaccurate information, disincentivize students from thinking critically, and enable tech-driven sexual harassment,' she wrote in an email to TIME. Read More: Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' Will Devastate Public Schools Potential Positives Zach Kennelly, a teacher who has been leading AI integration into DSST, a network of Denver charter schools, sees more potential for AI in the classroom. He taught AP Psychology last semester, and used AI tools to give students immediate feedback on their short analyses of psychological research. He also gave his students an AI bot trained on study guides and practice exams, allowing them to develop their own personalized, interactive learning approaches to study for the AP exam. 'Creating a brand new learning experience, giving individualized feedback for 60 students, then helping them internalize it—we're talking 60 hours to do that effectively over two assignments,' he says. 'Leveraging specific AI tools, I can move that process to two hours.' Kennelly still harbors concerns about how AI tools are impacting critical thinking, as well as around the motives around tech companies' education initiatives. 'Positioning tech companies to lead the conversation around how to do this in education: That has messy incentives and is a real concern,' Kennelly says. 'But I think this is a step forward, because instead of getting it straight from tech companies, we're positioning educators to lead.' Weingarten echoed this sentiment on Bluesky. 'The National Academy for AI Instruction was created with and for AFT members. Educators helped design the curriculum, test tools, and draft commonsense guardrails. We're engaging critically by demanding privacy, transparency, and real protections every step of the way,' she wrote.
Indian Express
09-07-2025
- Business
- Indian Express
OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic launch national academy to train 400,000 teachers by 2030
OpenAI is partnering with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to launch the National Academy for AI Instruction, a five-year initiative aimed at preparing educators to utilise and lead in the application of AI tools in K-12 classrooms. The initiative is expected to reach approximately 400,000 educators – that is, roughly one in ten US teachers – by 2030. As the founding partner, OpenAI will contribute $10 million to the project, comprising $8 million in direct funding and $2 million in in-kind resources, including access to computing tools and technical guidance. Other partners include the United Federation of Teachers, Microsoft, and Anthropic. The academy is expected to function as a hub for professional development, curriculum design and technical training, with an emphasis on accessibility and practical classroom impact. The flagship campus will be established in New York City, with plans to scale nationally through regional hubs. Educators participating in the programme will have access to workshops and online training courses, opportunities to build AI tools customised to their classroom needs, support with integrating AI into existing education systems, and priority access to OpenAI technologies intended for education. The initiative builds on findings from recent research, including a study from multinational analytics company Gallup that found six in ten educators already use AI tools. Many reported time savings of up to six hours per week. In a statement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman emphasised the importance of placing teachers at the centre of integrating AI into schools: 'Educators make the difference, and they should lead this next shift with AI,' he said. 'We're here to support them.' Similarly, AFT president Randi Weingarten highlighted the need for responsible deployment and guardrails: 'AI holds tremendous promise but huge challenges,' he stated, 'and it's our job to make sure AI serves our students and society, not the other way around.' This collaboration continues OpenAI's ongoing efforts to support educators through programmes like OpenAI Academy, ChatGPT for Education, and the OpenAI forum. The company is also co-sponsoring the AFT AI Symposium on July 24 in Washington, DC. In parallel with its institution initiatives, OpenAI is reportedly testing a new game-changing feature within ChatGPT called 'Study Together' in the drop-down menu of ChatGPT. From what is known, this tool seems like it can transform ChatGPT into an interactive study buddy. Reportedly, instead of simply telling the right answer, it will challenge a user to solve problems on their own and in a way that helps them master new concepts. Based on the name of the tool, it seems multiple users will be able to join the same session and study together. It could come as a respite to teachers, who have been grappling with coursework and students with their use of AI. On the surface, it seems like OpenAI's answer to Google's LearnLM. OpenAI has not officially announced when or if at all the new Study Together feature will be available to all users, or if it will be exclusive to ChatGPT Plus users. It needs to be noted that ChatGPT has become a resourceful tool for both teachers and students. For teachers, it helps them create lesson plans, and students use it as a tutor and as an assistant who can write their papers for them. A recent MIT study has shown that relying on ChatGPT and other AI is degrading our ability to think critically. At a time when AI is raising serious concerns about its impact on human creativity, ChatGPT's latest feature could likely promote positive use cases of AI in education.
Al Etihad
08-07-2025
- Business
- Al Etihad
OpenAI and Microsoft bankroll new AI training for teachers
9 July 2025 00:09 (THE NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE)The tech industry's campaign to embed artificial intelligence chatbots in classrooms is American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest US teachers union, said Tuesday that it would start an AI training hub for educators with $23 million in funding from three leading chatbot makers: Microsoft, OpenAI and union said it planned to open the National Academy for AI Instruction in New York City, starting with hands-on workshops for teachers this fall on how to use AI tools for tasks like generating lesson New York hub will be 'an innovative new training space where school staff and teachers will learn not just about how AI works, but how to use it wisely, safely and ethically,' Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in an interview.'It will be a place where tech developers and educators can talk to each other, not past each other.'The industry funding is part of a drive by US tech companies to reshape education with generative AI chatbots. These tools, including OpenAI's ChatGPT and Microsoft's Copilot, can produce humanlike essays, research summaries and class February, California State University, the largest US university system, said it would provide ChatGPT for some 460,000 students. This spring, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the third-largest US school district, began rolling out Google's Gemini AI for more than 100,000 high week, the White House urged US companies and nonprofit groups to provide AI grants, technology and training materials for schools, teachers and students. Since then, dozens of companies have signed on, including Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia and tech executives hope AI will become the fourth R.'Reading and writing and arithmetic and learning how to use AI,' said Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief global affairs officer. 'You're going to have to learn those skills over time, and I do think our education system is the best place to be able to do that.'But some researchers have warned that generative AI tools are so new in schools that there is little evidence of concrete educational benefit - and significant concern about can produce plausible-sounding misinformation, which could mislead students. A recent study by law school professors found that three popular AI tools made 'significant' errors summarising a law casebook and posed an 'unacceptable risk of harm' to tasks including research and writing to AI chatbots may also hinder critical thinking, a recent study from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University will provide $12.5 million for the training effort over the next five years, and OpenAI will contribute $8 million in funding and $2 million in technical resources. Anthropic will add $500,000 for the first year of the effort. First Glimpse On Monday, about 200 New York City teachers taking an AI workshop at their union headquarters got a glimpse of what the new national effort might look like. A presenter from Microsoft opened by showing an AI explainer video featuring Minecraft, the popular game owned by Microsoft. Next, the teachers tried generating emails and lesson plans using Khanmigo, an AI tool for schools for which Microsoft has provided support. Then they experimented with Copilot for similar tasks.
