Education tech advocates welcomed the Trump administration’s move to incorporate AI into schools, but they say more detail – and money – is needed to guarantee success. (Photo by PeopleImages/Getty Images)
Education software experts say they’re cautiously optimistic about a Trump administration drive to incorporate AI into classrooms, but such a program needs clear goals, specific rules — and enough money to fund the costly systems.
“AI is, inherently, really expensive,” said Ryan Trattner, CEO of AI-assisted studying tool Study Fetch. “It’s not something that scales like a normal piece of software where it might be the same price for 1,000 people to use it as 100,000.”
Among a handful of education-related executive orders last week, President Donald Trump released an order to incorporate artificial intelligence education, training and literacy in K-12 schools for both students and teachers.
The move is in line with other actions Trump has taken to promote quick growth of artificial intelligence in the U.S., including rolling back the 2023 Biden administration executive order that aimed to promote competition within the AI industry while creating guidelines for responsible government use of the technology. Introducing AI to grade school children is meant to create an “AI-ready workforce and the next generation of American AI innovators,” the order said.
A task force made up of members from various federal departments — like the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy and Labor, as well as the directors of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the National Science Foundation and other federal agency representatives — will be developing the program over the next 120 days.
Some makers of AI tools for students said they are cautiously optimistic about more widespread use of AI in schools, saying it would better prepare kids for the current workforce. But they say success with this program hinges on the ability to measure outcomes for AI learning, an understanding of how AI plays a role in society and a set of clear federal guidelines around AI, which the U.S. does not currently have.
Many students, parents and teachers are already using AI in some portion of their learning, often through AI-powered tutoring, counseling, training, studying or tracking tools mostly available from private companies.
Bill Salak, chief technology officer at AI learning and studying platform Brainly, said that many AI tools built for education right now aim to fill gaps in schools where teachers are often spread thin. They may be using AI tools to help them make lesson plans, presentations or study guides. Brainly was founded on the idea of simulating student-run study groups, and is a supplement to classroom learning, Salak said.
Salak is happy to see an initiative that will prompt educators to incorporate AI literacy in schools, saying he feels we’re in a “rapidly changing world” that requires much of the workforce to have a baseline understanding of AI. But he says he hopes the task force gets specific about their goals, and develops the ability to measure outcomes.
“I do think there will be further mandates needed, especially one in which we revisit again, like, what are we teaching?” he said. “What are the standards that we’re holding our teachers to in terms of outcomes in the classroom?”
Specific objectives may come after the 120 day research period, but the executive order currently says that the initiative will develop online resources focused on teaching K-12 students foundational AI literacy and critical thinking skills, and identify ways for teachers to reduce time-intensive administrative tasks, improve evaluations and effectively teach AI in computer science and other classes. It also seeks to establish more AI-related apprenticeship programs targeted at young people.
Trattner of Study Fetch said he’s eager to see a green light from the administration for schools to invest in AI education. The Study Fetch platform allows students and teachers to upload course material from a class, and receive customized studying materials. Trattner said that initially many educators were worried that AI would allow students to cheat, or get through classes without actually learning the material.
But he said in the last year or so, teachers are finding specific tasks that AI can help alleviate from their long to-do lists. Generative AI chatbots are probably not the best fit for classrooms, but specific AI tools, like platforms that help students learn their curriculum material in personalized ways, could be.
“Everybody knows this, but teachers are extremely overworked, with multiple classes,” Trattner said. “I think AI can definitely help educators be substantially more productive.”
But cost is something the committee should consider, Trattner said. The executive order calls for the development of public-private partnerships, and said the committee may be able to tap discretionary grant funding earmarked for education, but it didn’t outline a budget for this initiative. AI tools are often more expensive than other software that schools may be used to buying in bulk, Trattner said.
Some AI tools are targeted toward other parts of the school experience, like College Guidance Network’s Eva, an AI counseling assistant that helps users through the college application process, and helps parents with social and emotional dynamics with their children.
Founder and CEO Jon Carson said he’s not sure that this executive order will make a big impact on schools, because schools tend to follow state or local directives. He also feels like the current administration has damaged its authority on K-12 issues by attempting to shut down the Department of Education.
“In another era, we might actually even bring it up if we were talking to a school district,” Carson said. “But I don’t think we would bring this up, because the administration has lost a lot of credibility.”
Carson hopes the committee plans for security and privacy policies around AI in schools, and folds those principles into the curriculum. Federal guidance on AI privacy could help shape everyone’s use, but especially students who are at the beginning of their experience with the technology, he said.
A successful version of this program would teach students not just how to interact with AI tools, but how they’re built, how they process information, and how to think critically about the results they receive, Salak said. Educators have a right to be critical of AI, and the accuracy of information it provides, he said. But critical thinking and validating information is a skill everyone needs, whether the information comes from a textbook or an algorithm.
“In a world where there’s so much information readily accessible and misinformation that is so readily accessible, learning early on how to question what it is that AI is saying isn’t a bad thing,” Salak said. “And so it doesn’t need to be 100% accurate. But we need to develop skills in our students to be able to think critically and question what it’s saying.”
The specific recommendations and programing stemming from the Artificial Intelligence Education Task Force likely won’t come until next school year, but Salak said he feels the U.S. workforce has been behind on AI for a while.
“I really hope that we’re able to overhaul the agility at which the education institution in America changes and adapts,” Salak said. “Because the world is changing and adapting very, very fast, and we can’t afford to have an education system that lags this far behind.”
This post was originally authored and published by Paige Gross from AZ Mirror via RSS Feed. Join today to get your news feed on Nationwide Report®.
