AI, TECH AND EDUCATION

The question is not whether students and teachers will use AI, but how they will use it. If we leave AI unchecked, we risk eroding trust, subtracting from real learning, deepening inequities, reducing deep thought, empathy and human connection, and potentially destabilizing society. But if we aim for balance, AI can become a powerful tool to personalize education, save teachers time, and expand opportunities for every student. We must empower teachers and school-districts.

At this moment, there are several difficulties: some AI tools and policies boost learning, while many others subtract learning. Teachers across the country are testifying that students are writing entire essays and math assignments with generative AI. The Center for Democracy & Technology warns that over-reliance on AI creates enormous risks to the development of our young people.

This is a unique area of policy with new sets of challenges and always-shifting assumptions. The key, therefore, will be to facilitate responsiveness in government, schools, and communities to deal with the chaos that AI presents to education. By building systems that are flexible, abundance-driven, and evidence-driven, we can turn that disruption into growth.

Below are just a few of some of the primary relevant concerns, paths, and solutions we are seeing now:

  • Protect focus and psychological development: Statewide “bell-to-bell, screen-off” rule: no phones allowed on campus during school-hours.

  • Review: AI detectors are tools that claim to identify whether an essay or assignment was written by a student or generated by AI. Studies show high error rates in when these detectors are used. These cannot be relied upon as a sole-basis for discipline, but could be used in conjunction with more comprehensive approaches. However, we need not be too cautious: if there is a pattern of output and behavior that strongly suggests a student is relying on AI too heavily, action must be taken.

  • Build off of and increase funding for ESSB 5838 (2024), which created the statewide AI Task Force in Washington State (with an Education & Workforce subcommittee).

  • Fund AI co-pilots for assistance in grading. This will reduce teacher workload, and ideally, make grading more accurate.

  • Cultivate the Next Generation: With AI and new technology reshaping every field, we should leverage more resources toward advanced coursework, independent projects, and added support from teachers and community leaders so that kids with the ability and drive to go further in a particular area actually get the chance to do it.