The Trump administration is developing plans to introduce AI-based educational programs into schools across the United States, though none have been implemented yet.
In April, President Trump created the White House Task Force on AI Education. The goal of this task force is to make partnerships with companies and organizations in order to provide resources for the AI education for K-12.
Congressman Mike Flood, the United States representative for Nebraska, said that it is important that students should be taught to work with AI, as it is here to stay.
“It’s going to shape [gen Z] ,” Flood. “Leveraging AI to help build our tech economy, grow wealth, opportunity and jobs in America is what every other nation in the world is going to be doing.”
Another initiative, the Presidential AI Challenge, challenges both students and educators on the use of AI. Students do a project that includes the study, development or use of AI. Educators will focus on finding ways to teach and apply AI technologies in K-12 learning.
With all of this, the administration hopes to implement AI educational programs in order to stay at the forefront of AI development and use. This is also an opportunity to teach students how to use AI effectively so they can use it as adults.
Flood says that education departments in the U.S., including the Nebraska Department of Education, need to implement instruction on AI to be competitive internationally. The Presidential AI Challenge, he believes, will be a catalyst to push the AI initiative forward, but is “best left to the states”, and that there will need to be more done after the Presidential Challenge if there is to be a real chance of effectively implementing AI into education.
While the task force has been focused on implementing AI into education, Dorann Avey, the Digital Learning Director for the Nebraska Department of Education, proposes that as long as students use AI ethically and ensure information is accurate and without bias, it can be an incredible tool for school and beyond.
“If you are an inquisitive learner, it will open learning for you and help you learn about things that you don’t learn about in class,” Avey said.
Similarly, Flood advocates for the benefits of AI, though he focused on the effects of AI outside of education, like for those who don’t use credit cards.
“If you’ve not been using credit cards, if you’ve not leased a car, if you don’t own a home, your rental payments aren’t on there, you could have no credit,” Flood said. “AI is really good for the unbanked folks that are out there on the other side of the aisle.”
Despite the benefits, Flood recognizes that there are several drawbacks to AI in education.
“One of the benefits of classical education, before AI, is that you are taught to critically think,” Flood said.
For many students, AI has given them a shortcut to learning, thinking and producing high quality work. But the effect that this has may not even start in high school or college, it’s what comes after, in their futures.
Despite the drawbacks, it is important to know about AI and how to use it. To understand how to properly use AI, Avey experimented with it and even tested it for her job on different products, like Sora video or more education-based ones like Magic School and Curipod.
So far, the Trump administration hasn’t reached out to the Nebraska Department of Education for this plan, but if they do, Avey said it will likely be done by November or late fall.
For Flood, the future of AI is bright, but unknown.
“It’s kind of like the internet in 1995,” Flood said. “I don’t think anybody could have predicted what all came out of it. I think it’s going to revolutionize the world.”
