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We're back with Power in politics. I'm Heather Fordham. AI is becoming a bigger part of students and teachers' daily lives, and the city's Department of Education recently released its roadmap for how schools should use it, leveraging a red light green light system, a 45 day public comment period. It just ended and it shows not everyone is on board. We spoke with the co-chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy who weighs in their opinion. The Department of Education released their AI in schools report and guidance earlier this year. Could you please just explain to me what was your initial reaction and your thoughts on the policy that they put out? I think it's incredibly weak. It proposed no additional privacy protections for data even though AI poses especially high risk to student privacy because of the very intimate data that it collects and processes. And the state controller came out with an audit last week showing that the existing privacy policies and practices of the Department of Education are completely inadequate to uh secure and protect student privacy and, and safety. And so, uh, I was appointed to an AI working group by the previous chancellor and we came up with some proposals on how to strengthen the current privacy vetting process by the DOE and they rejected all of our proposals. Moreover, the guidance that came out did not even pretend to address most of the serious concerns that parents and educators and experts have for the use of AI in schools, including the detrimental impact it has on students' cognitive development, um, their learning of skills, their creativity, their mental health. Um, their ability to learn how to collaborate with other students. And the environment because it accelerates climate change, which we know is a really serious threat to our future on this planet. Why do you think the initial proposal that you guys kind of put forth was rejected? Did they give you any feedback on that? No. They have been insistent from the beginning that their own privacy policies and practices are strong enough, but we know that's not true, and the con uh controller's audit confirmed our, our views on that. There have been more than 100 breaches of sensitive student data in the last few years in New York City alone. Um, the audit showed that the DOE doesn't even know in many cases which schools are using which products and what data they're collecting for which students, which is, you know, shocking. And in many cases, families were alerted months and sometimes even years late, about the breaches, which is really very um irresponsible and dangerous because uh children's um um data is the most valuable for identity theft because they have no credit ratings. And after these breaches, usually the vendors um offer free identity, uh, identity theft. Insurance and, um, and credit ratings reports to be able to monitor what's happening with your kids' data and whether it's being stolen. But when families are notified up to 2 years late, there's no way that they can secure that data from being misused and, and stolen. And you mentioned the data breaches. I know there was just a data breach with Canvas most recently as of last week, where a lot of students' information was leaked during finals. Do you think this is kind of an example of what could happen here in New York City? Absolutely. The Canvas leak happened apparently that affected at least 7 New York City public schools. There was also at the same time an announcement of malware which was um put on computers in a high school complex in New York City where there are 4 public high schools that use that computer lab and so that their data was being stolen. Um, the Illuminate breach, which happened a couple of years ago, um, exposed the data of more than a million New York City public school students and former students. Some of whom I think about 400,000 were not informed of this, um. 400,000, uh, families were informed more than 2 years past the breach. And that was because DOE did not do its own investigation but simply relies on the vendors to tell them whose data was affected, which is no way to run a school system. Recently, we've heard from some city leaders as well as organizations and leaders on a state level that are calling. For a moratorium on this AI guidance, what is your reaction to that? Do you think the city should put through a moratorium on this for? We're part of the, the coalition asking for that moratorium, and we think it's absolutely critical at this point. We know that kids are using AI in the classroom, including kids as young as their products being used for pre-K students. The research is overwhelmingly negative about the effect on learning. And student mental health. We think we need at least a two-year moratorium so that really rigorous guardrails can be established with public input and with expert input to um prevent the serious damage that's going to be done to students' cognitive abilities and the rest. Um, really, the research is overwhelming right now and DOE seems to be paying no attention to it whatsoever. Have you gotten any response to the request for a moratorium or had any conversations with the mayor or any of, you know, representatives in the mayor's office? No, it's been very disappointing. We've tried to meet with the mayor. We delivered to the mayor's office a petition with more than 2000 signatures from parents, teachers, and others. And as a follow up, the media reporters asked the mayor's office for comment, and they refused to give him any comment. We know that the mayor himself has said that he doesn't use AI, and we believe that he should be looking out for our kids to make sure that they're not using AI in the classrooms. Up next, Mayor Mamdani declares victory in the budget battle. The details on how he successfully closed a multi-billion dollar shortfall and what this means for you when power in politics returns.

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This is power in politics and I'm Heather Fordham Mayor Donny declaring victory as he unveiled a more than $124 billion balanced budget after months of negotiations. No wealth tax, no property tax hike, and the rainy day fund will remain untouched. Mayordani says it was not an easy road to get here, but credits city agencies for finding savings and a partnership in Albany. Nearly two weeks late, New York City Mayor Zoran Mamdani presented his first balanced budget totaling a whopping $124 billion. Faced with a $5.4 billion budget gap, a number of plans have been put forth over the last several months, including a last resort option that would hike property taxes, with the city council speaker shutting that down. Instantly, the mayor leaned on his relationship with Governor Hochel, tapping into an additional $4 billion. Remaining savings were found in addressing due process cases, delaying the class size mandate, cost containment for city FEPs, shelter vouchers, and a restructuring of the pension liability fund. Notably, the plan includes roughly $40 million. Dollars to kickstart the Office of Community Safety and $26 million annually for the Office of Hate Crime Prevention, plus baseline funding for parks, libraries, and cultural institutions. I see this as a win, not just for our administration, but for the city of New York, a win to ensure that the city is back on firm financial footing, and it's doing so by taxing the rich, by creating a fairer relationship with Albany, by finally. Accounting for the mismanagement we've seen in prior years and embarking on a new chapter of an approach to budgeting that that is honest and that is actually building for long term stability. City Comptroller Mark Levine shared his thoughts on the budget, writing, quote, it is. It's important that we strengthen this budget further by reducing reliance on one-time actions and adding to reserves to ensure the city is prepared against potential fiscal shocks. A final balanced budget is due before the next fiscal year begins on July 1st. Meanwhile, the administration wants to make sure tenants have the space to talk about issues in their apartments. The night in your neighborhood events will give residents the chance to discuss their issues directly with senior officials and leadership. The series of forums will be held this summer with the first in the Bronx on May 20th. The second will be held in Brooklyn on June 3rd, and a third event will be held in Manhattan on June 17th. We'll have a link for the registration on our website news12.com. And that's all we have for you on this week of power and politics right here on News 12. Thanks so much for watching, and we'll see you next week. I'm Heather Fordham.

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News 12's Heather Fordham speaks with NYC World Cup Czar Maya Handa and Co-Chair of the Parent Coalition for Student Privacy Leonie Haimson.

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