Dare I say it?
asserted
I → say → it
Is it possible that New York City's public schools are actually being changed for…the better these days?
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schools → change → better
Not what I expected with Mayor Zohran Mamdani in charge!
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I → expect → charge
Most students will now be prohibited from using generative AI until high school, with a moratorium put in place on all digital devices until third grade.
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moratorium → prohibit → grade
Teachers for all levels will not be able to use AI in their grading of assignments.
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Teachers → use → assignments
"The department is also recommending caps on screen time, such as limiting middle schoolers to no more than 45 minutes a day," reports The New York Times.
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Times → recommend → minutes
"So-called companion chatbots, which offer emotional and mental support, will be banned in all grades."
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which → call → grades
"The Education Department is 'disabling' AI features in 38 existing citywide ed tech contracts," reports Chalkbeat.
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Chalkbeat → disable → contracts
"Officials haven't provided a list of those companies.
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Officials → provide → companies
But Mamdani's education adviser Ailish Brady said that the widely used digital tutor Amira and the digital version of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt reading curriculum—the most popular of the three mandated NYC Reads literacy programs—will both 'turn off' their AI components."
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tutor → say → components
The Reason Roundup Newsletter by Liz Wolfe Liz and Reason help you make sense of the day's news every morning.
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you → help → news
In New Mexico, reports Reason's Elizabeth Nolan Brown, public schools were required to use Amira "for mandatory literacy assessments, dyslexia screenings, and weekly tutoring sessions in kindergarten through second grade."
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schools → report → grade
This came with a whole host of privacy and efficacy worries.
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This → come → worries
"'Our families are asking questions we cannot fully answer: Where are these voice recordings stored, and for how long?
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recordings → ask → long
Who can access them?
asserted
Who → access → them
Are they used to train or refine the vendor's AI models?
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they → use → models
What safeguards protect them from breach or misuse?' wrote Jennifer Guy, superintendent of Los Alamos Public Schools," according to Brown.
uncertain
Guy → protect → Brown
I'm personally rather worried about Amira being both bad for child development and unhelpful at teaching kids how to read.
asserted
Amira → teach → kids
"Teachers and parents are reporting that Amira can't understand little-kid voices well, or kids with lisps or accents, and is inaccurately scoring kids on literacy and dyslexia assessments that are used to determine future school interventions," notes Brown on X. "And that having to repeat themselves a lot, or being constantly misunderstood by the robo-teacher, is giving kids more anxiety around learning to read.
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having → report → anxiety
I use them in my own research for Roundup sometimes.
asserted
I → use → Roundup
But learning how to be a critical consumer and verifier of information, as well as how to frame ideas and compelling arguments in your own words, is one of the main functions of K-12 education.
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learning → learn → education
These are standards we ought to uphold.
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we → uphold → ?
Tools that provide shortcuts, like calculators, are not held up as substitutes for learning addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.
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that → provide → addition
Tools that help with research, such as large language models (LLMs), should be worked into a student's workflow once the student has already developed an understanding of how to craft good writing and conduct good research.
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student → help → research
And when we're teaching reading or math to younger kids, the human touch really matters: Teachers should develop relationships with their young students and tailor their approaches.
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Teachers → teach → approaches
It frustrates me that young children are required to attend public schools (unless you opt out and teach them elsewhere, to the state's satisfaction), only for those schools to deprive them of social interaction and put them in front of screens.
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schools → frustrate → screens
Mamdani's no-screens policy for pre-school through second grade seems appropriate to me.
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policy → seem → me
Funny split reaction to this I'm seeing that's SF ppl fretting that kids won't "learn how to use ai" and NYC actual parents thrilled to be getting rid of crummy edtech programs that try to teach 1st graders reading via chatbot https://t.co/0bIXgszihM
— Katie Notopoulos (@katienotopoulos) September 3, 2026
I would imagine many Roundup readers are not New York City parents, or parents of young kids at all.
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readers → see → kids
But the coming educational-system transformation should interest us all: How and what we're teaching plays a big role in shaping our society's competencies and pieties.
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teaching → come → competencies
(Just look at the era of wokeness, which arguably started on college campuses and found its way to a boardroom near you in record time.)
For what it's worth, it's possible I'm wrong, or that I have some pedagogical blind spots.
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I → look → spots
We need more detail about how these policies will be rolled out.
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policies → need → detail
AI will change our world in ways too numerous too count, and some of those applications will be life- and productivity-enhancing while other applications will be destructive.
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applications → change → applications
(And even within the category of "destructive" maybe some things ought to be destroyed; destruction isn't necessarily bad.)
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destruction → destroy → destructive
One question I keep asking myself, when it comes to reading instruction, is: Were the public schools doing a good job at this in the first place?
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schools → keep → place
In many places—New York City included—the answer is a firm no.
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answer → include → places
I cynically look forward to the future in which AI is deployed in all kinds of school districts, yet teachers there still ask for raises, claiming they're underpaid even as they do less and less.
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they → look → less
Surely the unions will find a way to spin this.
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unions → find → this
Several days ago, a mentally ill 49-year-old woman, identified as Pamela Cisneros, wielded two knives and stabbed two victims in Times Square.
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woman → identify → Square
One of the victims was a mother and Bank of America employee, Erin Piacenti, who had just returned to work from maternity leave.
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who → return → leave
Cisneros was shot and killed by cops at the scene, and Piacenti also succumbed to her wounds.
asserted
Piacenti → shoot → wounds
…and 10 more, not listed.
The Aporia
