Second-largest U.S. teachers’ union; founded in Chicago
Civil rights leaders have announced a major demonstration in Washington, D.C. for Aug. 28, marking the 63rd anniversary of the 1963 march. The event, led by Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, aims to press Congress after a Supreme Court ruling tightened voting rights protections and spurred state redistricting.
New York officials are weighing participation in a federal Education Freedom Tax Credit program. Pro- and anti-school-choice coalitions are mounting campaigns as the state evaluates whether to opt in. The program would provide a 100% federal tax credit for donations to scholarship-granting organizations, potentially funding private and religious schooling while public schools defend their budgets.
New York City has imposed a one-year moratorium on student-facing generative AI for pre-K through eighth grade, affecting about 600,000 pupils. The city has banned companion chatbots, set classroom screen-time caps, will require twice-yearly AI literacy classes for high schoolers and will run limited supervised pilots for older students while reviewing ed-tech contracts.
The federal tax-credit scholarship program is expanding scrutiny and renewed political clash as New York considers opting in. Governors and unions frame the move as school choice versus public funding, while proponents say the program expands opportunity without diverting public dollars.