Monday, July 16, 2018

Chinese school's facial recognition scans students every 30 seconds - Business Insider

Chinese school's facial recognition scans students every 30 seconds - Business Insider

A school in China is monitoring students with facial-recognition technology that scans the classroom every 30 seconds

Visitors viewing a display of electronic facial-recognition technology that claims to be able to detect when students are talking or looking at their cellphones at the 21st China Beijing International High-tech Expo in Beijing. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

A Chinese high school in Hangzhou is using facial-recognition technology that scans students every 30 seconds.
The system is analyzing students' emotions and actions in the classroom as well as replacing ID cards and wallets at the library and canteen.
Facial-recognition technology is widespread in China, where it is being used to predict crime.
But using the systems in schools has raised privacy concerns, and last year hundreds of channels livestreaming classroom surveillance footage online was shut down.

A Chinese high school is using facial-recognition technology to monitor and analyze students' behavior.

The technology scans classrooms at Hangzhou No. 11 High School every 30 seconds and records students' facial expressions, categorizing them into happy, angry, fearful, confused, or upset. The system also records student actions such as writing, reading, raising a hand, and sleeping at a desk.

The "intelligent classroom behavior management system," according to Global Times, also records students' attendance, and students' faces are used to pay for canteen lunches and to borrow items from the library.

The school's vice principal said students' privacy was protected because the technology didn't save images from the classroom and stored data on a local server rather than on the cloud.

Last year the Chinese company Qihoo 360 shut down hundreds of its surveillance livestreaming channels after an uptick in privacy concerns. The channels streamed camera footage from several public locations including swimming pools, restaurants, and classrooms — the latter protected only by a password.

But security systems are rising in popularity after an increase in violence and questionable practices at Chinese kindergartens. In Beijing, all kindergartens are now required to have surveillance systems, some of which are even connected to local policemonitoring systems. Continue reading: Chinese school's facial recognition scans students every 30 seconds - Business Insider

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Parent Coalition for Student Privacy - https://www.studentprivacymatters.org/

Education Underfunding Tops $19 Billion over Decade of Neglect | #AFT2018 #RedForEd #IamAFT @aft @AFSCME @NEAToday @SEIU

Education Underfunding Tops $19 Billion over Decade of Neglect | American Federation of Teachers

Education Underfunding Tops $19 Billion over Decade of Neglect

PITTSBURGH—Governments in 25 states have shortchanged public K-12 education by $19 billion over the last decade, with low-tax Republican states guilty of the worst underfunding, a groundbreaking report by the American Federation of Teachers, released today, reveals.

“A Decade of Neglect: Public Education Funding in the Aftermath of the Great Recession” details for the first time the devastating impact on schools, classrooms and students when states choose to pursue an austerity agenda in the false belief that tax cuts will pay for themselves.

The comprehensive report offers a deep dive into the long-term austerity agendas and historic disinvestment that sparked the wave of nationwide walkouts this spring.

Among the findings: K-12 education is drastically underfunded in every single state in the United States. When you control for inflation, there are 25 states that spent less on K-12 education in 2016 than they did prior to the recession. But there are signs of the negative impact of austerity even in states with relatively stronger investment in schools.

Chronic underfunding explains why, in 38 states, the average teacher salary is lower in 2018 than it was in 2009, and why the pupil-teacher ratio was worse in 35 states in 2016 than in 2008.

While the recession may have forced budget cuts on our schools, the report exposes how Republican legislators and governors prolonged the damage by cutting taxes for the rich at the expense of public schools.

A majority of Americans instead support repealing tax cuts for the rich and using that money to invest in education, infrastructure and healthcare.

The report measures each state’s “tax effort”—that is, how much they tax, compared with how rich they are. Of the 25 states with the worst K-12 funding, 18 of them have taxed their residents less since the recession. Five of the 11 states with the lowest K-12 funding—Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas—are also among those with the lowest taxes on the rich.

The problem only gets worse in higher education, where 41 states spent less per student, creating a massive affordability and accessibility gap. This explains why tuition and fees for a two-year degree in 2017 rose at three times the rate of inflation when compared with 2008, and why the cost of a four-year degree rose even higher, putting college woefully out of reach for far too many Americans.

“These problems belong squarely at the feet of elected officials, many of them Republicans, who rather than investing in our future, insisted on ushering in counterproductive austerity,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “When legislators choose to prioritize millionaires over children, our country suffers. And when our education secretary says that money doesn’t matter in schools, we tell teachers, parents and children that they don’t matter either.”

The report was accompanied by a key resolution, passed by delegates today at the AFT’s biennial convention, to turn the data into action. “The Fight for Investment in Our Future and the Fight Against Austerity” states, in part, that the AFT “will … investigate legislative, policy and grass-roots solutions to increase investment in public services, including the identification of new revenue streams,” and “will work to channel the activism we are witnessing across the country in this moment into a movement for enduring change by electing pro-public education, pro-worker candidates in November.”

Read the full report here.

# # # #

The AFT represents 1.7 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.

Education Underfunding Tops $19 Billion over Decade of Neglect | American Federation of Teachers

'We're militant again': US teachers at convention galvanized by wave of strikes | US news | The Guardian

'We're militant again': US teachers at convention galvanized by wave of strikes | US news | The Guardian

'We're militant again': US teachers at convention galvanized by wave of strikes
Thousands of teachers gathered in Pittsburgh to discuss plan of action for new school year after strikes over pay and conditions

View All AFT Convention 2018 Videos HERE

Thousands of teachers gathered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, this weekend for the American Federation of Teachers’ convention and to discuss a plan of action for the new school year after a series of extraordinary strikes across the US over pay and conditions.

The convention comes as the teachers’ union movement has been galvanized by a wave of strikes, mainly in traditionally Republican states. At the same time, public sector unions are facing a brand new assault on their finances after the supreme court ruled in June that public sector employees in unionized workplaces can opt out of paying union dues.

Addressing the meeting on Friday, former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said: “We have to gear up again, because the challenges we face now are truly unlike any we have seen for some time.”

However, teachers gathered in Pittsburgh say that instead of being deterred by the attacks on them that the attacks have forced their union’s member to re-engage more in order to keep members from leaving their unions.

“Whose schools? Our schools,” cried out Chicago Teachers Union vice-president Jesse Sharkey as thousands of teachers poured out of the David L Lawrence convention center and into the blistering heat of Pittsburgh’s streets.

“We are all militant again, we will all go to jail if we have to,” said Robert Russo, a teacher union leader from New Jersey who served 15 days in jail in 1970 for his role in an illegal teachers strike. “They are taking away rights, they are taking away everything we have worked for years and people are very invigorated.”

Despite school being out for the summer, teachers around the country aren’t taking a break. They are mobilizing support for more teachers strikes in states across the country including in Louisiana, where a survey of 3,800 teachers in May performed by the union showed that 61% of teachers supported a strike. Continue Reading: 'We're militant again': US teachers at convention galvanized by wave of strikes | US news | The Guardian

View All AFT Convention 2018 Videos HERE

AP Analysis: Billionaires fuel powerful state charter groups

AP Analysis: Billionaires fuel powerful state charter groups

AP Analysis: Billionaires fuel powerful state charter groups

SEATTLE (AP) — Dollar for dollar, the beleaguered movement to bring charter schools to Washington state has had no bigger champion than billionaire Bill Gates.

The Microsoft co-founder gave millions of dollars to see a charter school law approved despite multiple failed ballot referendums. And his private foundation not only helped create the Washington State Charter Schools Association, but has at times contributed what amounts to an entire year’s worth of revenues for the 5-year-old charter advocacy group.

All told, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given about $25 million to the charter group that is credited with keeping the charter schools open after the state struck down the law, and then lobbying legislators to revive the privately run, publicly funded schools.

It’s an extreme example of how billionaires are influencing state education policy by giving money to state-level charter support organizations to sustain, defend and expand the charter schools movement across the country.

Since 2006, philanthropists and their private foundations and charities have given almost half a billion dollars to those groups, according to an Associated Press analysis of tax filings and Foundation Center data. The review looked at 52 groups noted by a U.S. Department of Education website as official charter school resources in the 44 states plus Washington, D.C., that currently have a charter law, as well as the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

Most of the money has gone to the top 15 groups, which received $425 million from philanthropy. The Walton Family Foundation, run by the heirs to the Walmart fortune, is the largest donor to the state charter advocates, giving $144 million to 27 groups.

“We ought to be paying more attention to who these organizations are, and what kind of vision they have, and what drives them. A lot of these organizations have extraordinary influence, and it’s often pretty quiet influence,” said Jon Valant, an education policy expert at Brookings.

Charters aren’t subject to the same rules or standards governing traditional public schools but are embraced by Gates and other philanthropists who see them as investments in developing better and different ways to educate those who struggle in traditional school systems, particularly children in poor, urban areas. Studies on academic success are mixed.

The charter support groups, as nonprofits, are typically forbidden from involvement in political campaigns, but the same Continue reading: AP Analysis: Billionaires fuel powerful state charter groups

Sunday, July 15, 2018

Weingarten offers ‘hope in darkness,’ urges member and election engagement | #AFT2018 #RedForEd #IamAFT @aft @AFSCME @NEAToday @SEIU

Weingarten offers ‘hope in darkness,’ urges member and election engagement | American Federation of Teachers

Weingarten Offers Hope in Darkness

Randi Weingarten speaking at AFT convention

View All AFT Convention 2018 Videos HERE

Weingarten's "Hope in Darkness" Speech

View All AFT Convention 2018 Videos HERE

AFT President Randi Weingarten addressed a full convention hall Friday, outlining the fight the union has before it and, more importantly, urging members to find “hope in the darkness” at a crucial juncture for American democracy and Americans’ aspirations for a better life. Convention participants followed closely, demonstrating enthusiastic and loud support with standing ovations—for the stories about how AFT members are sticking with their unions in huge numbers, and for the way our collective voice is so much stronger together. They also demonstrated strong support for better immigration policies that are pro-Dreamer, pro-Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and against migrant family separation.

Weingarten laid out a path for a strong union movement in the face of the Janus v. AFSCME Supreme Court decision and right-wing attacks—a path that depends on engaging members and involving community around issues that matter. And she sounded a dire warning for the future of American democracy in the Trump era, framing the 2018 election as a battle for decency over cruelty.

“We are a year and a half into this presidency, and we have cause for great concern,” she said. “This state of affairs is not normal. I cannot be silent and neither can you. … Beyond demanding decency, we must defend democracy at this most crucial moment for American democracy since the rise of fascism and authoritarianism in the 1930s.”

Weingarten called for AFT members to unite with our communities in the lead-up to the November midterm elections and framed voting as the way to translate the activism we are seeing across the country into enduring change. She also noted that nearly 300 AFT members are running for elected office: They “aren’t just casting their ballots—they’re ON the ballot.”

“These elections won’t just determine whether Republicans or Democrats prevail, but whether cruelty or decency prevails,” she said. “We must be a check and balance for our democracy and for a society that is safe, welcoming and sane.”

“America’s labor movement is central to defending democracy. Authoritarian governments invariably attack unions, seeking to undermine them, because unions have always been in the forefront of the fight for democracy. … So when it comes to November 2018, we must be together and we must be all-in, which is why I am so glad that both Secretary Clinton and Sen. Sanders are with us at this convention.”

Weingarten zeroed in on the challenges and opportunities facing labor unions in the post-Janus era, amid continued threats from a right wing and an administration determined to deny workers a shot at a better life. “Right-wing groups and their wealthy allies want us gone, because unions are often the only organized force challenging their enormous power in politics and the economy,” she said. “It’s part of their trifecta strategy: suppress the vote, privatize public education and eliminate unions—the three ways working folks have any agency, any real power, in America.”

“They know that working people gain strength in numbers,” Weingarten continued. “And they know working people do better when they join together in unions. So the right wing is doing everything they can to stop us, so people have to fend for themselves.”

Weingarten juxtaposed the feeling of apprehension during the Janus oral arguments—when the conservative justices made it clear that they wanted to “destroy unions and, with them, the aspirations and dreams of working folks,” overturn 40 years of precedent, and weaponize the First Amendment—with the hope and inspiration of the teacher walkouts that launched two weeks later in West Virginia and spread across the country.

“People see that despair is not a strategy, and that—together—these fights are winnable,” she said.

Weingarten continued, “Like so much of the recent activism, the teacher walkouts are stoking a movement for social justice, for workers’ rights, for women’s rights, for civil rights and children’s rights, for decent healthcare and well-funded public schools, for safety—on the streets and in our schools. People acting together and accomplishing together what individuals can’t do on their own.”

And she noted that the Janus decision, which its wealthy funders hoped would encourage members to “drop” the union, has in fact galvanized members to join and recommit to the AFT in record numbers. “Where our opponents have waged their bare-knuckle opt-out campaigns, the stories of drops have been few and far between. We have seen just the opposite: members recommitting and new members joining.”

More than 530,000 AFT members have recommitted to the union, and the AFT has reached its highest membership ever at 1,755,000 members.

But that’s not stopping right-wing groups from targeting union members, she said, noting that in the days since the Janusdecision, “right-wing billionaires have spent millions, literally millions, on opt-out campaigns and lawsuits. The Mackinac Center, for example, with funding from the Koch brothers and Betsy DeVos, is spamming every educator in nearly a dozen states on their school email accounts.”

Weingarten said the way forward for unions in the face of these attacks is to engage members and involve community around issues that matter—safe communities and welcoming, well-funded public schools; affordable healthcare and higher education; good wages, a secure retirement, and a voice at work and in our democracy; decency and fairness, and fighting hatred and bigotry; and fighting for family values and a better America.

Concluding with a call to action to keep caring, fighting, showing up and voting, Weingarten said, “We are in a battle for the soul of our nation. It’s terrifying, but we have confronted dreadful times before. … But I come down on the side of hope.”

“America can and does change,” she continued. “Power concedes nothing without a demand, as Frederick Douglass taught us, and we have been fighting powerful forces for centuries. ... The arc of the universe does bend toward justice—but not on its own. It bends because people like you and me put our hands on it and bend it. So now it’s our turn. This is on us. This is our moment.”

Read the full speech here.

[Virginia Myers; photos by Michael Campbell and Elliot Cramer]

Weingarten offers ‘hope in darkness,’ urges member and election engagement | American Federation of Teachers

View All AFT Convention 2018 Videos HERE

Defiant national union presidents gathered in Pittsburgh speak of unity following Janus ruling | #AFT2018 #RedForEd #IamAFT @aft @AFSCME @NEAToday @SEIU

Defiant national union presidents gathered in Pittsburgh speak of unity following Janus ruling | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Defiant national union presidents gathered in Pittsburgh speak of unity following Janus ruling

View All AFT Convention 2018 Videos HERE

One of them delivered a rousing, sermon-like call to action. Another cracked a series of jokes and performed an acoustic rendition of Woody Guthrie’s “Union Maid,” with the familiar line “I’m sticking to the union.” Another put the current hardships into the context of labor history and promised to organize more workers.

The three national union presidents took the stage together Saturday at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, Downtown, to address the American Federation of Teachers convention — and to show 3,000 educators, nurses and health professionals that organized labor stands prepared to stick together following an historic U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month that could dramatically undercut union budgets.

“It is so important that you see us all four standing together as one,” said Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

“Our four great unions enjoy indestructible bonds of solidarity,” Mr. Saunders said, his voice rising to a crescendo. “There is no daylight between us, not even an inch. And that’s never been more important than it is now.” Continue reading: Defiant national union presidents gathered in Pittsburgh speak of unity following Janus ruling | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Big Education Ape: AFT Convention 2018 live stream | American Federation of Teachers #AFT2018 #RedForEd #IamAFT @aft @AFSCME @NEAToday @SEIU - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2018/07/aft-convention-2018-live-stream.html

Image result for Hillary Clinton to teachers union conference

Hillary Clinton to teachers union conference: Keep up fight | National News | citizentribune.com - https://www.citizentribune.com/news/national/hillary-clinton-to-teachers-union-conference-keep-up-fight/image_b994abcb-9faa-5d5e-b1c0-75f877cba36f.html on @CitizenTribune

Thousands March Through Pittsburgh To Call For Public School Funding « CBS Pittsburgh - https://cbsloc.al/2KZr5nz on /KDKA

U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks to the American Federation of Teachers biennial convention at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center Saturday, July 14, 2018 in Pittsburgh.

'Nevertheless, we persist.' Elizabeth Warren backs unions during Pittsburgh stop at teachers' convention | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - http://www.post-gazette.com/local/region/2018/07/14/Elizabeth-Warren-Pittsburgh-teachers-convention-janus-unions/stories/201807140070 via @PittsburghPG

Saturday, July 14, 2018

The Carolina Coup and the Fight for Public Education - Progressive.org #AFT2018 #RedForEd

The Carolina Coup and the Fight for Public Education - Progressive.org

The Carolina Coup and the Fight for Public Education

The nation's eyes are on my home state of North Carolina, where what many are calling a coup has shown the lengths to which Republicans will go to protect and expand their political power.

The naked power grab by Republicans has shocked the nation. But few people really understand that a struggle over public education is at the center of the fight against an authoritarian government in the era of Donald Trump.

What did Republicans do? In a nutshell, according to a review of the carnage by David Graham for The Atlantic, "Having lost the governor’s seat in November’s election, the GOP legislature opted to simply reduce the governor’s power drastically. The two most prominent bills involve the elections system and the governor’s right to make appointments."

Specifically, on the elections front, Republicans robbed incoming Democratic Governor Roy Cooper of his ability to change the composition of state and county boards of elections, diluted the governor's appointment authority, and rigged the timing of county board leadership to favor Republicans.

Republican lawmakers took away the incoming governor’s ability to make appointments to the State Board of Education and the boards of trustees of University of North Carolina system, made cabinet appointees subject to approval by the senate, and cut the number of appointments the governor can make for government jobs from 1,500 to 425.

The attack on the incoming governor's power over education appointments is especially radical, as it transfers power from the state board to the new state superintendent of public instruction, Republican Mark Johnson, who defeated the Democratic incumbent, June Atkinson, in November.

Why go after education offices?

In North Carolina, public education has always been an issue inextricably intertwined with voting rights and democracy. To learn more about this I talked with historian Timothy Tyson at one of his favorite haunts in downtown Durham, a combination coffee shop, casual eatery, and general store with Continue reading: The Carolina Coup and the Fight for Public Education - Progressive.org

‘We’re Not Gonna Take It!’: Can Trump Country Withstand the Grassroots Teachers Movement Sweeping the Nation?

‘We’re Not Gonna Take It!’: Can Trump Country Withstand the Grassroots Teachers Movement Sweeping the Nation?

‘We’re Not Gonna Take It!’: Can Trump Country Withstand the Grassroots Teachers Movement Sweeping the Nation?

View All AFT Convention 2018 Videos HERE

On the evening of February 1, Tina Adams peered out the window of her hotel room in Charleston, West Virginia. It had been snowing for hours, and the roads were freezing over. Earlier in the day, she had driven two hours north from coal country to set the stage for a protest at the state Capitol.

Adams, a middle school teacher and mother of six, was furious. After 15 years at Baileysville Elementary and Middle School, in Brenton, she made about $47,000 a year—$12,000 less than the national average. Like many of her fellow teachers, she sometimes worked nights and weekends to boost her income; for extra pay, she offered private tutoring for students who had discipline problems or developmental disabilities.

It wasn’t always enough, and Adams had begun thinking about selling her beloved Harley-Davidson Sportster to help her daughter buy a car. It was not the kind of life she envisioned when she launched her teaching career. And now, the state’s governor, Jim Justice, was reneging on a long-promised pay raise and hiking health insurance premiums. Officials even wanted teachers to download a smartphone app to track their daily steps or face a financial penalty. As the president of her local union, Adams pushed for a walkout. “It’s like all of us teachers had been pushed to the side and forgotten about,” she tells me. “We finally reached a point where we were fed up.”

And yet, as the snow fell in Charleston that night, Adams worried. She had organized her school’s field trips and class dances—nothing like this. What if no one showed up? Her home in the southern part of the state had been an old union stronghold, yet West Virginia was now Trump country. Teachers hadn’t taken any Continue reading: ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It!’: Can Trump Country Withstand the Grassroots Teachers Movement Sweeping the Nation?