AI backlash comes to the classroom
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America's two largest school districts both imposed sweeping AI bans this past week, hitting the brakes on a technology that's rapidly making its way into classrooms around the country.
Why it matters: Research on AI's educational value is mixed. Some studies have found personalized AI tutors can improve learning, while other research has linked AI-assisted essay writing to weaker critical thinking.
Driving the news: New York City's public school district blocked AI use for roughly 600,000 students in Pre-K through 8th grade, restricting it to specific uses for high school students.
- Hours later, Los Angeles Unified imposed a districtwide moratorium on AI use on school devices for the 2026-27 school year, following a separate screen-time crackdown.
- And Chicago school board candidates are lining up to sign a pledge demanding a three-year moratorium on generative AI in its schools.
What they're saying: Nicki Petrossi, a mother and co-founder of the Tech-Safe Learning Coalition, tells Axios one parent called today's kids "the guinea pig generation," adding, "you won't find a parent who's not concerned about this."
- Another parent told her that their "five-year-old, who still believes in the Tooth Fairy, [is] being asked to interact with chatbots. What could go wrong?"
Between the lines: Bans may be hard to enforce because AI is already embedded in classroom technology.
- Google's Gemini, for example, can appear when students search on school Chromebooks.
The other side: Some educators warn sweeping bans could eliminate useful tools.
- "If you're working with students with special needs or English language [learning] students...there are a lot of benefits to using technology that allow us to augment the lessons," Janice Jackson, executive director of the Aspen Institute Education & Society Program and former Chicago Public Schools CEO, tells Axios. "We shouldn't throw that out."
- "The jury is still out on the quality of each policy, and that is not an indictment on any of these policies. It's more related to the fact that this is still very new," she says.
By the numbers: Teachers are worried AI is becoming an easy out for students, according to a recent NPR/Ipsos poll.
- 55% say students mostly use it as a shortcut to avoid work, 54% say it makes critical thinking skills harder to build, and 57% say it makes it harder to gauge what students actually know.
- More than half say their school hasn't given them guidance on how to handle AI.
The bottom line: "The ed tech industry has a reckoning coming," Brendan Bouffard, associate general counsel at Fairplay, adding that multiple states are considering strong legislative guardrails.
- "It's going to be good to see some real standards put in place to help make sure that these tools are being used safely and effectively for students, and that these tech companies are actually held accountable for what they're selling."
Go deeper: Schools adopting AI could see benefits (and more work) - Axios Kansas City
