Published September 2, 2026
BY OLIVIA FORT
Across the country, schools are adopting artificial intelligence tools faster than researchers can evaluate them. In fact, a 2025 study by RAND, a nonprofit thinktank, found that 53% of English, math and science teachers reported using AI in instructional tasks, a sign of how quickly AI is entering schools without clear rules or safeguards. The issue here is the growing presence of AI in schools, often without clear rules or safeguards.
Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest in the nation, spent $6 million developing a custom AI chatbot called Ed, a tool the superintendent had touted as a multilingual “personal assistant for students and families,” according to EducationWeek. But the initiative quickly unraveled. The company behind Ed furloughed nearly all its employees, its CEO was charged with fraud, and a whistleblower raised alarms about how the tool handled sensitive student data. The rollout faced so much backlash that it contributed to the superintendent’s resignation. LAUSD’s experience can be looked at as a cautionary tale. When schools push AI into classrooms, they risk both the quality of instruction as well as the safety of student information.
AI tools don’t just generate content; they collect, store and analyze student data in order to do so. When teachers use AI to produce emails, assessments, or classroom materials, they may be feeding student information into systems that aren’t built with adequate safeguards. In New Mexico, multiple school districts opted out of the state-mandated Amira reading program after parents raised concerns that the software was recording children’s voices and using them to train the AI.
Even when student data isn’t directly threatened, the learning itself can be. I saw this firsthand in a college class I took last summer. I arrived expecting rigorous instruction, thoughtful discussion and teaching from an experienced professor. Instead, the professor delivered three-hour lessons guided entirely by AI-generated slides and videos. The material lacked nuance, clarity and humanity.
Taken together, these examples reveal that when AI becomes part of instruction, students lose both the quality of human teaching and privacy protections that teachers are legally obligated to uphold. Whether it’s a chatbot generating inaccurate lessons or a reading program recording children’s voices, students are being exposed to tools that are not fully understood. And when schools increasingly rely on those same tools, the classroom becomes a place where learning and privacy are both at risk.
Schools should not require or encourage AI in instruction. Protecting learning and student information means protecting the role of the teacher, not replacing them.
