Tanisha Grant testifies on digital equity, literacy, and environmental dangers of AI

Good afternoon, Chair Christman and Chair Denowitz.

My name is Tanisha Grant.

I am a mother of three, a grandmother of four.

All four of my grandchildren are autistic, and I am also the executive director of an organization that you might know called Parents Support and Parents New York.

Over these last six years, Parents Support in Parents New York has worked diligently to raise money and to use parts of any grants that we receive to provide digital equity.

We're talking about students using AI, but we're not recognizing that there are still black and brown students that do not have access to technology at all.

And I'm very shocked to not hear these things come up in this meeting.

I'm also shocked to be the first black mother, black organizer to sit at this table and talk about my black children and grandchildren.

I'm also an organizer who fought for culturally responsive education and curriculum.

And it's not culturally responsive to talk about black and brown children and not have organizers and black community leaders at the table when we know that black students are disenfranchised in every way.

Like I said, we believe in digital equity.

Digital equity is different than AI access.

While all of our students should have access to digital equity, I also have not heard anyone talk about the environmental dangers of data centers, of AI.

When I think about all of this, I think about Terminator.

And a lot of people, you know, we talk about movies all the time, but a lot of fictional movies turn into our very real reality.

So I agree with AIM, PSPNY will do everything that we can to stand with you all on the facts that, you know,

Before we had technology, before we had Brown versus Board, black children had a literacy rate of up to 90%.

What happened?

What happened?

We're not talking about literacy.

We're not talking about teaching our children to read.

We're not fixing the problems that we already have before we go on to something that can destroy our children's cognitive thinking, that can...

could destroy our environment.

I need my great-grandchildren to have water to drink and to wash their bodies with and to grow food.

So I'll leave y'all with all of that and say that I'm looking forward to continuing this fight and the Department of Education explanation on all of this is inadequate.

At best.

Thank you.

Thank you very much for your testimony, all three of you.