Latest news with #Weingarten
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Expanded AI Training for Teachers, Funded by OpenAI and Microsoft
This article was originally published in Chalkbeat. More than 400,000 K-12 educators across the country will get free training in AI through a $23 million partnership between a major teachers union and leading tech companies that is designed to close gaps in the use of technology and provide a national model for AI-integrated curriculum. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter The new National Academy for AI Instruction will be based in the downtown Manhattan headquarters of the United Federation of Teachers, the New York City affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers, and provide workshops, online courses, and hands-on training sessions. This hub-based model of teacher training was inspired by work of unions like the United Brotherhood of Carpenters that have created similar training centers with industry partners, according to AFT President Randi Weingarten. 'Teachers are facing huge challenges, which include navigating AI wisely, ethically and safely,' Weingarten said at a press conference Tuesday announcing the initiative. 'The question was whether we would be chasing it or whether we would be trying to harness it.' The initiative involves the AFT, UFT, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Anthropic. The Trump administration has encouraged AI integration in the classroom. More than 50 companies have signed onto a White House pledge to provide grants, education materials, and technology to invest in AI education. In the wake of federal funding cuts to public education and the impact of Trump's sweeping tax and policy bill on schools, Weingarten sees this partnership with private tech companies as a crucial investment in teacher preparation. 'We are actually ensuring that kids have, that teachers have, what they need to deal with the economy of today and tomorrow,' Weingarten said. The academy will be based in a city where the school system initially banned the use of AI in the classroom, claiming it would interfere with the development of critical thinking skills. A few months later, then-New York City schools Chancellor David Banks did an about-face, pledging to help schools smartly incorporate the technology. He said New York City schools would embrace the potential of AI to drive individualized learning. But concrete plans have been limited. The AFT, meanwhile, has tried to position itself as a leader in the field. Last year, the union released its own guidelines for AI use in the classroom and funded pilot programs around the country. Vincent Plato, New York City Public Schools K-8 educator and UFT Teacher Center director, said the advent of AI reminds him of when teachers first started using word processors. 'We are watching educators transform the way people use technology for work in real time, but with AI it's on another unbelievable level because it's just so much more powerful,' he said in a press release announcing the new partnership. 'It can be a thought partner when they're working by themselves, whether that's late-night lesson planning, looking at student data or filing any types of reports — a tool that's going to be transformative for teachers and students alike.' Teachers who frequently use AI tools report saving 5.9 hours a week, according to a national survey conducted by the Walton Family Foundation in cooperation with Gallup. These tools are most likely to be used to support instructional planning, such as creating worksheets or modifying material to meet students' needs. Half of the teachers surveyed stated that they believe AI will reduce teacher workloads. 'Teachers are not only gaining back valuable time, they are also reporting that AI is helping to strengthen the quality of their work,' Stephanie Marken, senior partner for U.S. research at Gallup, said in a press release. 'However, a clear gap in AI adoption remains. Schools need to provide the tools, training, and support to make effective AI use possible for every teacher.' While nearly half of school districts surveyed by the research corporation RAND have reported training teachers in utilizing AI-powered tools by fall 2024, high-poverty districts are still lagging behind their low poverty counterparts. District leaders across the nation report a scarcity of external experts and resources to provide quality AI training to teachers. OpenAI, a founding partner of the National Academy for AI Instruction, will contribute $10 million over the next five years. The tech company will provide educators and course developers with technical support to integrate AI into classrooms as well as software applications to build custom, classroom-specific tools. Tech companies would benefit from this partnership by 'co-creating' and improving their products based on feedback and insights from educators, said Gerry Petrella, Microsoft general manager, U.S. public policy, who hopes the initiative will align the needs of educators with the work of developers. In a sense, the teachers are training AI products just as much as they are being trained, according to Kathleen Day, a lecturer at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School. Day emphasized that through this partnership, AI companies would gain access to constant input from educators so they could continually strengthen their models and products. 'Who's training who?' Day said. 'They're basically saying, we'll show you how this technology works, and you tell us how you would use it. When you tell us how you would use it, that is a wealth of information.' Many educators and policymakers are also concerned that introducing AI into the classroom could endanger student data and privacy. Racial bias in grading could also be reinforced by AI programs, according to research by The Learning Agency. Additionally, Trevor Griffey, a lecturer in labor studies at the University of California Los Angeles, warned the New York Times that tech firms could use these deals to market AI tools to students and expand their customer base. This initiative to expand AI access and training for educators was likened to New Deal efforts in the 1930s to expand equal access to electricity by Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief global affairs officer. By working with teachers and expanding AI training, Lehane hopes the initiative will 'democratize' access to AI. 'There's no better place to do that work than in the classroom,' he said at the Tuesday press conference. This story was originally published by Chalkbeat. Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. Sign up for their newsletters at
Time of India
09-07-2025
- Business
- Time of India
OpenAI and Microsoft bankroll new AI training for teachers
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills The tech industry's campaign to embed artificial intelligence chatbots in classrooms is American Federation of Teachers, the second-largest U.S. 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 Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the AI academy was inspired by other unions, such as the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, that have worked with industry partners to set up high-tech training 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," Weingarten said in an industry funding is part of a drive by U.S. 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 U.S. university system, said it would provide ChatGPT for some 460,000 students. This spring, Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the third-largest U.S. school district, began rolling out Google's Gemini AI for more than 100,000 high Trump administration, which recently froze nearly $7 billion in funding for schools, has called on industry to pony up for AI education. Last week, the White House urged U.S. 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 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 risk."I do think that there is a risk," said Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, noting that he frequently cited the critical thinking study to employees. He added that more rigorous academic research on the effects of generative AI was needed.
New York Post
03-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Democrats should ‘break up' with Randi Weingarten, ex-Harris campaign aide argues
The Democratic Party should 'break-up' with American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten, ex-Kamala Harris campaign aide Ben Austin wrote in an opinion piece on Monday. 'Democratic leaders should thank Weingarten for her service, then lock the door behind her as she makes her way out,' Austin wrote in The Hill. 'As a party leader, Weingarten gaslit Democrats into believing that the best response to the Republican free market smorgasbord of school choice with loosely regulated vouchers is to make sure there is no choice of any kind.' Weingarten announced that she would be leaving the Democratic National Committee due to a disagreement with party leadership in June. Austin, the founding director of Education Civil Rights Now and a strong supporter of unions, also called out an affiliate of AFT for wielding 'considerable power to bully politicians and defiant parents into fealty during the school closures.' 6 President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten speaks to a reporter on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 25, 2025. REUTERS 6 Sen. Kamala Harris looks on as Randi Weingarten speaks to reporters in Detroit, Michigan on May 6, 2019. REUTERS The affiliate, United Teachers Los Angeles, strongly opposed Austin's community-organized effort to get teachers back in the classroom throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. 'Weingarten's affiliate initially opposed teaching over zoom. And while United Teachers Los Angeles trapped Los Angeles Unified School District students at home indefinitely, cut off from learning, they rooted their opposition to reopening schools in bizarre racial ideology, not science,' he wrote. 'These Los Angeles Unified School District parents encountered endless Kafkaesque roadblocks erected by Weingarten's union. And as it happened, I watched a group of smart progressive parents I'd been organizing with transform into Trump voters one-by-one. It was like a real-time focus group of the damage Weingarten and her allies were doing to my party's credibility,' Austin continued. 6 Vice President Kamala Harris and Minn. Gov. Tim Walz on stage during a campaign event in Philadelphia, Penn. on Aug. 6, 2024. Getty Images 6 Vice President Kamala Harris meets labor leaders including Randi Weingarten in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on March 18, 2021. Shawn Thew / Pool via CNP / Austin said Weingarten's leadership had been 'tragic' for American children. Austin accused the Democratic Party of 'offshoring' education policy to teachers unions. 'Here's a lesson plan for my party: Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama won because they had the guts to challenge party orthodoxy on behalf of the American people. Democrats like Harris — along with every nominee since Walter Mondale who lost in the general election — ran as avatars of party orthodoxy and offshored education policymaking to Weingarten and the teachers unions,' he wrote. He said former Vice President Kamala Harris never talked about schools in her campaign speeches and said it was by design. 6 President Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office of the White House as Secretary of Education Linda McMahon shakes hands with Annette Albright on April 23, 2025. REUTERS 6 Randi Weingarten joins Democrats during a rally at the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill on May 13, 2025. Getty Images 'Democrats became the party of public education because they had the courage to fight for it. That courage is needed again today — to challenge failed leaders, stand with parents, take back power and fight for democracy,' Austin concluded. AFT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Democrats should 'break up' with Randi Weingarten, ex-Harris campaign aide argues
The Democratic Party should "break-up" with American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten, ex-Kamala Harris campaign aide Ben Austin wrote in an opinion piece on Monday. "Democratic leaders should thank Weingarten for her service, then lock the door behind her as she makes her way out," Austin wrote in The Hill. "As a party leader, Weingarten gaslit Democrats into believing that the best response to the Republican free market smorgasbord of school choice with loosely regulated vouchers is to make sure there is no choice of any kind." Weingarten announced that she would be leaving the Democratic National Committee due to a disagreement with party leadership in June. Austin, the founding director of Education Civil Rights Now and a strong supporter of unions, also called out an affiliate of AFT for wielding "considerable power to bully politicians and defiant parents into fealty during the school closures." The affiliate, United Teachers Los Angeles, strongly opposed Austin's community-organized effort to get teachers back in the classroom throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. "Weingarten's affiliate initially opposed teaching over zoom. And while United Teachers Los Angeles trapped Los Angeles Unified School District students at home indefinitely, cut off from learning, they rooted their opposition to reopening schools in bizarre racial ideology, not science," he wrote. "These Los Angeles Unified School District parents encountered endless Kafkaesque roadblocks erected by Weingarten's union. And as it happened, I watched a group of smart progressive parents I'd been organizing with transform into Trump voters one-by-one. It was like a real-time focus group of the damage Weingarten and her allies were doing to my party's credibility," Austin continued. Austin said Weingarten's leadership had been "tragic" for American children. Austin accused the Democratic Party of "offshoring" education policy to teachers unions. "Here's a lesson plan for my party: Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama won because they had the guts to challenge party orthodoxy on behalf of the American people. Democrats like Harris — along with every nominee since Walter Mondale who lost in the general election — ran as avatars of party orthodoxy and offshored education policymaking to Weingarten and the teachers unions," he wrote. He said former Vice President Kamala Harris never talked about schools in her campaign speeches and said it was by design. "Democrats became the party of public education because they had the courage to fight for it. That courage is needed again today — to challenge failed leaders, stand with parents, take back power and fight for democracy," Austin concluded. AFT did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Time of India
01-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Major split in US education unions as NEA blasts, AFT backs parental rights ruling by Supreme Court
Major split in US teachers unions after Supreme Court backs parental rights on LGBTQ lessons. (Getty Images) In a rare and public divide, the two largest teachers unions in the US—representing nearly 5 million educators combined—have taken opposing stances on a major Supreme Court decision involving parental rights and LGBTQ-themed content in public school curricula. The 6-3 ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor allows parents in Maryland to opt their children out of classroom lessons that include LGBTQ topics if such material conflicts with their religious beliefs. The case has not only stirred debate across the country but also exposed fault lines within the leadership of the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), two organizations that traditionally align closely on education policy and political matters. Union leaders react sharply to landmark ruling NEA President Becky Pringle sharply criticized the decision, claiming it undermines professional educators and harms students. As reported by Fox News, Pringle posted on BlueSky, 'Students pay the price when books are censored and educators are silenced.' She added that the court had 'failed students' and 'ignored the expertise of trained educational professionals,' calling the ruling 'shameful.' by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like People Aged 50-85 With No Life Insurance Could Get This Reassured Get Quote Undo The NEA, which represents more than 3 million educators, has long opposed efforts to restrict access to books or materials that reflect LGBTQ identities and experiences. In contrast, AFT President Randi Weingarten expressed a more nuanced position, emphasizing the importance of parental involvement and local decision-making. According to Fox News, Weingarten said, 'We have to respect all children and all families. Bad facts make bad law. Mahmoud should have been worked out on a local level, it's a shame it went all the way to SCOTUS.' She added, 'Parents must have a say about their own kids—they are our partners in education. ' Weingarten had echoed similar sentiments earlier this year during oral arguments, telling Fox News, 'This is something that has to be happening at the local level and not in the Supreme Court,' and noted that the books in question are not ones she would personally read to children. Unions typically united on social issues Both Pringle and Weingarten have historically shared political alignment, having endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race. The current divide is notable given their longstanding opposition to conservative-led education policies, including book bans and curriculum restrictions. Despite her statement supporting parental input, Weingarten has previously pushed back on book challenges. In 2023, she launched the 'Freedom to Teach and Learn' hotline to report attempts at banning educational content, accusing 'MAGA lawmakers' of using 'culture wars to divide communities,' as reported by Fox News. Other Supreme Court decisions announced The Mahmoud v. Taylor decision was one of several education-related rulings announced the same day. While details of other cases were not immediately available, the court's docket indicated a focus on First Amendment concerns and the balance between public education standards and religious liberties. This split between the NEA and AFT highlights growing tensions within US education policy—where cultural, legal, and parental rights debates continue to challenge traditional alliances and educational norms. Is your child ready for the careers of tomorrow? Enroll now and take advantage of our early bird offer! Spaces are limited.
