Trump admin seeks to unleash AI in schools

The Trump administration is looking to propel the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in schools, a task that puts the U.S. in a race with China and faces open-ended questions on the best way to implement the technology for students.

Multiple AI plans, including for K-12 schools, were released last week by President Trump in a moment advocates say could either be a turning point or quickly fizzle out.  

The next steps will depend on private market buy-in, addressing ethical and data concerns and ensuring educators have the proper training with AI.

Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent guidance to K-12 schools outlining formula and discretionary grant funds that can be used to integrate AI into instructional material creation, tutoring, career and college guidance and teacher preparation.

The guidance came as Trump introduced a broader “Winning the AI Race: America’s AI Action Plan,” hitting every sector and declaring AI's importance for U.S. national security. 

“This is really the first time the U.S. government has explicitly positioned AI education as a national security issue, and it's really a long time coming” said Alex Kotran, co-founder and CEO of the AI Education Project, adding Beijing has had a lead on AI in education since 2017. 

China “built a multilevel AI education system, from K-12 to vocational, university tracks, and launched teacher outreach programs,” Kotran said. “It's very clear ... the administration is basically saying, 'Game on.'”

An important crux of this strategy will be innovation and buy-in from the private market, as the top-down approach implemented in China is not plausible in the U.S. 

But so far, it seems many educators are willing to embrace the new challenge.  

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) announced a partnership earlier this month with the United Federation of Teachers, Microsoft Corp., OpenAI and Anthropic to create the National Academy for AI Instruction. 

The academy will give free AI training to all 1.8 million members of the AFT, one of the largest teachers unions in the country. 

The implementation of AI in schools, however, will face a national patchwork of initiatives.

California has introduced official AI guidance, while others states such as Tennessee are pushing for oversight and AI literacy legislation. Mississippi has established an AI task force to create recommendations on implementing the technology in schools.

"The tools are changing so fast that the education system will not be able to keep up with them if you're only focused on AI literacy ... so it will not make sense for the school system to set up curricula around teaching how particular tools work, but I think they need to focus really on helping students teach themselves how to use the best tools that they have available,” said Tara Chklovski, founder and CEO of Technovation.   

In the recently released “AI Learning Priorities for All K-12 Students” report by the Computer Science Teachers Association, only 42 percent of surveyed teachers felt prepared to teach AI, while 85 percent believe AI should be included in foundational computer science experiences.  

The concept of AI in schools exploded in 2022 in the U.S. after ChatGPT hit the scene, with some districts initially banning the technology due to cheating concerns. Schools are still facing difficulties with how to address AI cheating and bullying.  

Privacy and ethical concerns remain a key issue as leaders look to race ahead with AI education.  

In her "Dear Colleague" letter, McMahon highlighted “responsible use” of AI, which she said should be educator-led, ethical, accessible, transparent and data-protective.  

“The Department expects grantees to apply sound judgment and partner with researchers, educators, and communities to ensure the effective, safe, and ethical deployment of AI,” McMahon wrote. 

She explained that use of AI must follow the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, outputs should be evaluated so students learn with rather than from AI and that stakeholders such as parents should be fully informed about how the technology works. 

“I think part of what we see as critical for all students to learn are about the core personal, societal and environmental impacts, both positive and negative, of this technology,” said Jake Baskin, executive director of the Computer Science Teachers Association. 

“I think, in ensuring students learn how it works and dig into those ethical aspects of what this looks like, we're going to ensure we're supporting students to actually be critical about that themselves and ask really hard questions to their teachers, to their administrators, to their school boards, of how their data is being used, how AI is being leveraged and what that means for them,” he added.