Media Contact
Adam Allington
Microsoft and two of the country's largest teachers unions announced a legally enforceable AI privacy standard for US schools on Wednesday, establishing protections that school districts can incorporate directly into their Microsoft contracts. The agreement comes on the heels of New York City Public Schools’ screens and AI ban.
Lee Adler
Senior Extension Associate, Labor and Unions
Lee Adler is an expert on education and academic union issues at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
Adler says:
“The agreement between the AFT and Microsoft is a starting point, but it leaves some of the biggest questions about AI in classrooms unanswered. Who decides how AI is used in lesson planning, grading and student assessment? How are teachers evaluated when algorithms are involved? Those are questions that unions and school districts are going to have to confront directly.
“The central question is whether teacher unions will negotiate over exactly how AI is used in the classroom. The Microsoft agreement doesn’t appear to go that far. For now, those decisions will largely be made district by district, even though teachers across the country are already dealing with these issues every day.
“An agreement with one technology company is not going to settle the larger debate over AI in education. The real test will be whether unions can establish enforceable rules for how these tools are used in classrooms, and whether those rules apply across the rapidly expanding AI industry.”
