Everyone wants to know the “right” answer on AI in schools. Should it be banned? Required? Left up to teachers? Locked down with strict rules? The reality is that there isn’t one right answer. In this, as in much of life, economist Thomas Sowell’s brilliant insight rings true: “There are no solutions, only trade-offs.”

When it comes to AI in education, different families have different preferences. And the effects of decisions made today may not be known for years. Given the diverse views among parents and the ever-changing nature of AI, it’s crucial that we embrace freedom rather than mandates.

As we continue our special “AI in Education” series, it’s time to consider the funding side. On Tuesday, my colleague Jennifer Huddleston examined why AI in the classroom matters and the importance of parents and teachers deciding how kids use it. Yesterday, she and Christopher Gardner looked at how teachers can benefit from AI. 

School choice is an important element that relates to both topics. It’s easy enough to say parents should decide how much their children interact with AI in school. But how realistic is that in practice? In our current system, parents are generally mandated to send their children to assigned public schools. If they want something different, they must pay twice for education—once in taxes and again in tuition or homeschooling costs. Similarly, as public schools have a near monopoly on education in most areas, that’s where the vast majority of teachers work.

The technologies used in classrooms are constantly evolving. Teachers have worked on chalkboards, whiteboards, and smartboards. They have gone from grading exams by hand to using Scantrons to now using entirely digital formats. This evolution has been occurring since the dawn of education, as has the concern about the potential impact of each technology on teachers and the quality of education. After all, Socrates expressed concern that the written word could tell without teaching. But wise teachers have adapted to these technologies, using them not as replacements but improvements that can allow them to use their skills more judiciously.

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) in education remains a hot topic. Some of the debate involves philosophical issues around the purpose of education and what it means to learn; other elements are far more straightforward. It is a reality that today’s students will encounter AI tools in their education and careers. There are many ways that AI can be an important tool to provide better educational opportunities. But there are also those who express legitimate concerns about the potential for AI “brain rot” or the possibility that students will become dependent on AI tools in ways that will erode their actual learning.

It is possible that both sides of the debate could be right. AI has many different applications and isn’t simply good or bad. But the reality of AI’s benefits should make us cautious of calls to ban such technology, either from classrooms or more generally.

As students head back to school, many teachers, parents, and policymakers may be asking questions about whether they want AI in the classroom. This piece will focus on two key elements: the benefits of AI in classrooms and the importance of that use being decided in ways that support students as individuals. Decisions about the appropriate role of AI in education are likely as unique as every classroom.

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No new parent looks at their baby and thinks, “I want my child to be standardized.” Cars, furniture, hardware parts, sure. But not our kids. Yet for more than a century, most kids have been educated in a factory-model school system geared toward standardization. In an effort to educate the masses, earlier generations traded the individualized nature of homeschooling and the one-room schoolhouse for an approach that sorted kids by birth date instead of ability or need and delivered content to the whole group at the same speed, whether or not it was the right content or speed. 

The expansion of educational freedom is helping fuel a movement back to a more individualized approach to learning. School choice programs, such as education savings accounts, allow parents to direct a portion of state funding to a variety of educational options. At the same time, some states are working to reduce barriers that make it difficult to create these new entities.

In most areas of life, when something isn’t working, we look for a better option. In K–12 education, though, children are assigned to public schools based on where they live—and if that school isn’t a good fit, the child is generally seen as the problem. School choice is changing that by expanding access to alternative learning environments. But educational freedom changes lives only if parents and teachers know what options exist, which is why Cato’s Friday Feature highlights the schools, policies, and organizations bringing those choices within reach.

When Robert Barnett was teaching high school math at Eastern High School in Washington, DC, he ran into a problem familiar to teachers everywhere: his students weren’t all at the same academic level.

“I realized that it was impossible for me to teach one lesson per day in such a way that all my students would understand,” Robert recalls. “Some were ahead—they were bored. Some were behind—they were lost. Some were absent.”

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In most areas of life, if something isn’t working, we look for another option. But not in K–12 education. The current system assigns kids to public schools based on where they live, not what they need. When it’s not working, the default is to assume there’s a problem with the child instead of asking if the school is the best fit. Of course, sometimes kids just need to work through challenges. But often, a different environment is what’s needed.

The spread of school choice programs that allow state funds to be used beyond public schools is opening the door to other learning environments—and that’s expanding educational freedom. But many parents and teachers aren’t aware of the diverse array of alternatives available today. Each week, the Cato Friday Feature showcases these options, along with the policies and organizations that make them more accessible, raising awareness for policymakers and parents. Educational freedom can only change lives if the people most affected know about it!

Living in Arizona—a state at the forefront of school choice and education entrepreneurship—Jennie Jones learned about Prenda microschools soon after she began homeschooling her oldest child. She was intrigued. “I thought, wow, that would be so fun to bring a few kids to my house,” she recalls.

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