Ohio is requiring AI policies for all K-12 schools. Will other states follow?

AI should not be a tool used by anyone trying to teach children to understand truth, logic, fairness, values and subjects like math, literature and history.

Ohio has become the first state to mandate the drafting of AI frameworks in all government K-12 schools.

Depending on what they come up with, this could be a needed check on out-of-control technology or a plunge into bad educational practices.

AI, by its nature, makes people intellectually lazy since something else is doing the thinking for them. While it can be a great tool for research, AI has no place in school curricula that teach basic skills. Kids learn best experientially.

The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce has until the end of the calendar year to release a comprehensive model AI use policy, meant to serve as a guide for school districts, according to language in the state’s recently approved budget, EdWeek reports.

All K-12 government school districts will have until July 1, 2026, to adopt their own AI usage policies. Districts can either follow the state’s model or develop their own, as long as it aligns with the state’s overall blueprint.

“Many states have already published general guidance on AI usage, but Ohio is the first to require that schools adopt a specific policy,” EdWeek said. “Within K-12 education, some of the biggest concerns, surfaced by supporters and skeptics of AI’s growing role, are the implications for student data privacy, how to guard against misinformation and bias, and how to ensure that the technology promotes critical thinking among students and their ability to evaluate information effectively.”

Home and private schools may also be lulled into using AI. USPIE has previously warned that AI has no place in K-12 education. Evidence abounds that learning through real books, pencil and paper and dialogue with real people builds the strongest foundation.

The Waldorf Schools, the expensive private schools in Silicon Valley where tech execs send their kids, have zero tech in K-12. What does that tell us?

At the pace AI is developing, anything kids learn about it today will likely be obsolete in two years. There is already evidence that AI can lie, be biased and fabricate source references. AI should not be a tool used by anyone trying to teach children to understand truth, logic, fairness, values and subjects like math, literature and history.

MIT Media Lab researchers found that using ChatGPT and similar tools to write essays resulted in lower brain activity in young adults. In another MIT study, coordinated with OpenAI, some users developed “an unhealthy emotional dependency” on ChatGPT as well as “addictive behaviors and compulsive use that ultimately results in negative consequences for both physical and psychosocial well-being.”

If it does this to adults, imagine what it does to kids. This is why schools should not be adapting kids to AI dependency. What’s more, ChatGPT was found to be pushing a radical sexual agenda and even instructing kids on how to get around parents.

As schools — especially government schools — rush into using AI and other technological crutches, children will suffer. Parents, teachers and lawmakers should be shielding children from this threat, not enabling it.

United States Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) is a nonprofit, nationwide coalition that is fighting to return education to its proper local roots and restore parental authority over their children’s education by helping parents and local communities to escape federal and other national influences. It is the vision of USPIE to create a culture where parents, empowered with the authority to choose what and how their children learn, are the undisputed primary educators of their children, where local schools operate in support of families, and where education is unencumbered by federal mandates.

USPIE’s powerful documentary, “Truth & Lies in American Education,” addresses some of the most glaring issues in the American education system and equips parents to make a change in their local school district for the betterment of their children. The film follows Few’s daughter-in-law, April, as she seeks to learn more about the system she was planning on exposing to her own children and learns the shocking truth. “Truth & Lies in American Education” is available for streaming on SalemNOW, as well available on DVD.

USPIE’s “Unmasking Government Schools with Sheri Few” is a weekly podcast that exposes the dangers of education shaped by government bureaucrats and social engineers, while exploring practical ways to protect children and preserve America’s freedom. Listen to “Unmasking Government Schools with Sheri Few” on YouTube, Facebook, Spotify and X.