Districts that embed AI literacy, educator training and age-appropriate computer science into federal grant proposals will gain a direct competitive advantage for Education Department discretionary funding starting next month.
The Department of Education’s for K12 and higher ed grants aim to prepare students and teachers for an AI-driven workforce by building their skills in the appropriate artificial intelligence use.
The agency intends to support AI literacy through expanded computer science courses and professional development. The new guidelines should encourage educators to use AI to personalize instruction, use AI to serve students with disabilities and streamline administrative tasks.
Dual-enrollment AI coursework and high-impact AI tutoring are examples of programs that could rate highly in grant proposals.油The rule also requires all funded AI projects to incorporate universal design for learning and to accommodate students with disabilities and multilingual learners. Federal funds will also support the use of AI to improve academic initiatives.
Feedback from educators, parents and industry leaders inspired the provisions requiring age-appropriate AI use. Several commenters expressed concerns about student privacy and increased screen time.
“Children already spend an average of 7.5 hours a day on screens for non-school activities,” according to one commenter. “Increased AI use will only deepen this crisis and exacerbate the physical and mental health harms of screen time.
The department emphasized that state and local agencies remain responsible for safety policies.
Public hesitancy persists
Many comments mirror those made by leading advocates in recent weeks following an AI summit held at the White House last month. Education experts believe the government’s vision for AI in education is out of touch.
During the “Fostering the Future Together Global Summit,” first lady Melania Trump introduced the idea of personalized AI tutoring with a humanoid robot.
Imagine a humanoid educator named Plato,’ she said. Access to the classical studies is now instantaneousliterature, science, art, philosophy, mathematics, and historyhumanitys entire corpus of information is available in the comfort of your home.
This idea drew pushback from teachers’ unions. The president of the American Federation of Teachers described the first lady’s scenario as “every parent’s worst nightmare.”
“The tech billionaires tried to get technology 20 years ago to replace teachers, now they’re trying to get AI to replace teachers,” Randi油Weingarten told .
Meanwhile, optimistic leaders油want to merge the human element of instruction with tailored AI support. One expert described AI as a co-worker or a team member designed to collaborate back and forth with the user to achieve a particular goal.
This banter, said Pitsco Education CEO Matt Frankenbery, plays out as prompt engineering, i.e., asking questions, refining inputs and iterating through conversations with AI. These interactions require intentional thinking, adjustment and other key cognitive skills.
Because of this, Frankenbery challenges the narrative that AI clouds students critical thinking skills.
If you dont have the critical thinking skills of how to write that prompt and how to refine it, then youre going to struggle to use AI effectively, he explains.
District 91心頭istration uses artificial intelligence to support research and drafting, with all content reviewed and verified by the author.
91心頭+: Superintendents and cabinet-level leaders can sign up for a to 91心頭+ to livestream “Leading Through the Noise: Staying Grounded in a Politicized Environment” with Dr. Quintin Shepherd on April 28.
