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Draft Executive Order Outlines Plan To Integrate AI Into K-12 Schools (washingtonpost.com) 65

Posted by BeauHD from the AI-everything dept.
A draft executive order from the Trump administration proposes integrating AI into K-12 education by directing federal agencies to promote AI literacy, train teachers, and establish public-private partnerships. "The draft is marked 'predecisional' and could be subject to change before it is signed, or it could be abandoned," notes the Washington Post. From the report: Titled "Advancing artificial intelligence education for American youth," the draft order would establish a White House task force on AI education that would be chaired by Michael Kratsios, director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, and would include the secretaries of education, agriculture, labor and energy, as well as Trump's special adviser for AI and cryptocurrency, David Sacks. The draft order would instruct federal agencies to seek public-private partnerships with industry, academia and nonprofit groups in efforts to teach students "foundational AI literacy and critical thinking skills."

The task force should look for existing federal funding such as grants that could be used for AI programs, and agencies should prioritize spending on AI education, according to the draft order. It would also instruct Education Secretary Linda McMahon to prioritize federal grant funding for training teachers on how to use AI, including for administrative tasks and teacher training and evaluation. All educators should undergo professional development to integrate AI into all subject areas, the draft order says. It would also establish a "Presidential AI Challenge" -- a competition for students and educators to demonstrate their AI skills -- and instruct Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer to develop registered apprenticeships in AI-related occupations. The focus is on K-12 education, but the draft order says, "Our Nation must also make resources available for lifelong learners to develop new skills for a changing workforce."

Draft Executive Order Outlines Plan To Integrate AI Into K-12 Schools More | Reply

Draft Executive Order Outlines Plan To Integrate AI Into K-12 Schools

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  • The orange tumor is a real zero master (Score:3)

    by Revek ( 133289 ) on Wednesday April 23, 2025 @08:33PM (#65326779)
    Lets face it every decision he makes sows a maximum amount of destruction.

    • That's not true. A good 5% of the decisions are actually positive overall, and of the 95% that are net negative, each bad decision is 5% positive. A pro-wrestling magnate may decide that children should not be educated, but my taxes will be lower, and WWE viewership will rise.

    • AI may be OK for math in K-12. It has the opportunity to be more personalized. That can be a good thing.

      Now the AI I am thinking of is a little more focused than the general purpose stuff we hear so much about. I am thinking about one with expert systems for arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, etc and an LLM focused on mathematics and perhaps some applied science. Keep its training focused.

  • A One (Score:5, Funny)

    by Luthair ( 847766 ) on Wednesday April 23, 2025 @08:43PM (#65326791)
    I'm pretty sure they mean A One.

  • Yet another hand out to tech bros (Score:3)

    by crmarvin42 ( 652893 ) on Wednesday April 23, 2025 @08:45PM (#65326793)
    So we canâ(TM)t have money to feed students who are too insecure, but we can spend money to force AI into classrooms where it isnâ(TM)t needed and will, in all likelihood, worsen student learning by encouraging them to outsource the act of generating answers to an AI? Fuck I need to get my kids the fuck our do this stupid fucking country.

    • So we can't have money to feed students who are too insecure, but we can spend money to force AI into classrooms where it isn't needed and will, in all likelihood, worsen student learning by encouraging them to outsource the act of generating answers to an AI? Fuck I need to get my kids the fuck our do this stupid fucking country.

      Well... one of those things helps rich people and corporations make money and one doesn't. Even the secondary outcome of stifling critical thinking and keeping the unwashed masses dumb helps them. Seriously, this President got elected twice.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by drnb ( 2434720 )

        stifling critical thinking and keeping the unwashed masses dumb helps them. Seriously, this President got elected twice.

        Apply a little critical thinking and you might notice that your comment applies to all the candidates in the last three presidential elections.

        • stop spreading false equivalencies between fascism and non-fascism. you may think it makes you look cool or smart to be jaded about politics, but it just makes you look like a useful idiot apologist for fascism. the dems are run of the mill bad, as far as politics goes. Trump is once every 3 generations or so bad. he is operating on a whole different level. there is a continuum of bad, and trump is off the charts relative to all other options.

  • Running towards a Dystopia! (Score:3)

    by TXG1112 ( 456055 ) on Wednesday April 23, 2025 @08:47PM (#65326799) Homepage Journal

    This might be one of the most dystopian things I've ever heard of.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jmccue ( 834797 )

      This, the GOP has been trying to ruin free public education for decades. With AI being a "thing", they found a sure fire method.

      We all know the high-end private schools will never go to AI. That is how you know what the rich and their owned political party is trying to do.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gtall ( 79522 )

        Yes, they are trying to ruin public education, and AI might aid them in that effort. More transparently, this is way to unload a lot of public school teachers.

        Just pick your favorite right wingnut hobgoblin and think of public school teachers as being one of them. It is a right wingnut wet dream to have a stupid electorate, it worked for them in the last election so they are going to go for it from now on.

    • This might be one of the most dystopian things I've ever heard of.

      Wait until you hear about everything else this administration is doing.

    • The potential for surveillance is high, but no one knows how to steer the ship ... outcomes are highly unpredictable imo. Just a few ideas but, people might surprise us, the kids raised on this stuff might be moved to social movements , or some wierd geniouses will pop up.. I think it will be chaotic though

      • Oh, sure. They'll be moved to social movements. Check out the Hitler Youth. The The Children of the Revolution will lead with their purity.

      • The potential for surveillance is high, but no one knows how to steer the ship ... outcomes are highly unpredictable imo. Just a few ideas but, people might surprise us, the kids raised on this stuff might be moved to social movements , or some wierd geniouses will pop up.. I think it will be chaotic though

        I never read speeches or talks from any politicians, but this smells Trumpy. Are you being sarcastic, serious, or just having a stroke?

    • Well, then you believe in the power of positive thinking.

  • Critical thinking (Score:3)

    by GrahamJ ( 241784 ) on Wednesday April 23, 2025 @08:52PM (#65326805)

    Oh the irony of trumplicans promoting the idea of critical thinking skills!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by drnb ( 2434720 )

      Oh the irony of trumplicans promoting the idea of critical thinking skills!

      Oh the hilarity of progressives talking as if they have any critical thinking skills. Here's a clue: The critical thinkers were largely the conservative democrats and moderate republicans that are endangered specifies within their respective parties, and flocking to the independent banner.

  • This is something severely lacking in so many people, so I wholeheartedly back this being taught in schools.

    As the order is "predecisional", I fear this is a part that might be cut...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by isomer1 ( 749303 )
      ... you can't possibly believe that this means 'critical thinking skills' in the traditional, logical sense.

      This means: Can you quote the appropriate bible passage to justify Trump's latest actions? Can you articulate why Fox News is so consistently more accurate than CNN? When did Columbus navigate the Gulf of America?

      AI will never venture beyond the documents *they* provide. It makes them the ultimate purveyors of truth.

      • When did Columbus navigate the Gulf of America?

        You might note that the waters Columbus navigated were called neither the Gulf of Mexico nor the Gulf of America at the time. Columbus probably referred to those water erroneously as the Western Pacific or Indian Ocean?

        AI will never venture beyond the documents *they* provide. It makes them the ultimate purveyors of truth.

        That's why you create an AI with expert systems only in math and some applied science, and an LLM trained only in discussions in those fields.

    • AI isn't going to teach kids "critical thinking skills"; it's going to teach kids to use AI to do their "thinking"

  • I thought the Feds were supposed to stay out of Ed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Pizza ( 87623 ) on Wednesday April 23, 2025 @09:10PM (#65326827) Homepage Journal

    Haven't they been bleating from the rooftops that The Feds Have No Business Interfering With Educatuon, Which Is Best Left To The [Red] States That Clearly Know Best(tm).

    Yet here we go with Federal mandates for state+local education curricula.
    .

    • Re:I thought the Feds were supposed to stay out of (Score:4, Interesting)

      by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Wednesday April 23, 2025 @09:44PM (#65326847)

      Haven't they been bleating from the rooftops that The Feds Have No Business Interfering With Educatuon, Which Is Best Left To The [Red] States That Clearly Know Best(tm).

      Yet here we go with Federal mandates for state+local education curricula. .

      They're the same people who have been going on about how schools and businesses shouldn't be told who to hire... unless they're hiring non-white, non-male, non-straight, non-Christians... in which case they need to be told who to hire.

      This is asinine on multiple levels.

      From a practicality standpoint, by the time a K-12 student hits the workforce, AI tools will have evolved through several iterations and skills won't be applicable. This is technology in its infancy and every 12 months we're seeing massive change. This won't be "I learned Lotus 1-2-3 in school, now my employer wants me to use Excel." It'll be "I learned Python in school, now my employer wants me to explain my dreams to a dolphin using pantomime."

      Second this is a set of skills that has extremely limited - but overhyped - applicability in the real world. The vast majority of students who graduate aren't going to have any use for AI in their nice, shiny, freshly on-shored factory jobs. The fear of a nation being left behind in a skill that nobody really can explain its mass appeal is silly.

      When kids graduate, if they happen to be looking to become graphic artists they'll learn the tool, just like learning Photoshop or whatever. The AI arms race is in the R&D labs, desperately trying to make the tech not shit before the hype bubble pops. Not the classrooms.

    • Oh no it’s totally different when WE do it. Like demanding Harvard change the curriculum and policies or lose funding. I thought you wanted the government to stop telling people what to do?

  • AI isn't just LLM and this doesn't seem to suggest using it as a teacher. If they do mean LLM, then yes, any combination with critical thinking would be an oxymoron, unless they mean that students should distrust anything digital, which would be good media literacy, though that does sound anti-dumpster. There's still a chance that they mean how to use AI properly, as a tool, and how to develop it, or that someone with a brain cell could influence it in that direction before signature. How this dipshit has

    • AI isn't just LLM and this doesn't seem to suggest using it as a teacher.

      I'm guessing this is treating AI like calculators in the 70's, when students were taught to use simple calculators as tools. Math was still taught, but these new things called calculators were introduced as additional tools. I think this is similar to teaching kids how to use a computer keyboard or a word processor.

      • AI isn't just LLM and this doesn't seem to suggest using it as a teacher.

        I'm guessing this is treating AI like calculators in the 70's, when students were taught to use simple calculators as tools. Math was still taught, but these new things called calculators were introduced as additional tools. I think this is similar to teaching kids how to use a computer keyboard or a word processor.

        I think what you'll see are students using a tablet and stylus to solve problems and an AI will provide personalized assistance based on what it observes. The AI may also have the curriculum so it can offer personalized instruction, moving at pace dependent upon student ability. Extending into advanced curriculum not required when dealing with more capable students. That's sort of the outline for the academic research of at least the last 10 years.

    • AI isn't just LLM and this doesn't seem to suggest using it as a teacher.

      Personalized education is actually an often cited goal for education these days (well actually for over a decade), and an AI of some sort is pretty much a given. Keep in mind this AI should be narrowly focused. Perhaps having math and some applied science expert systems, and an LLM trained strictly for such mathematical and scientific conversations. Students would have a digital workspace for problem solving so the AI could watch them solve problems and determine the appropriate personalization.

      • I believe that education needs to be facilitated by humans, and why wouldn't we want children to be socialized, or at least have the opportunity for socialization, despite what I as a father of boys 13 and 15 see as indoctrination (a completely separate issue, and if you don't think AI can indoctrinate, we need to talk further).

        What I think nobody wants is AI completely replacing teachers or letting students use it unchecked, which seems to be the assumption of most other comments here, hence my root com
    • The draft mentions “AI literacy”, so yes: it seems to be about learning about AIs rather than learning from them.

  • Thus, the only sane, rational, scientific approach must be to not only keep AI out if the schools, it must be to excise anything having to do with computers out of the schools. No AP CS. No graphing calculators. In fact, math and physics are CS-adjacent, so better get rid of those just to be safe.

    I also hear RFKjr wants to ban artificial food coloring and isn't a fan of the added sugar. Can't wait for the Dems to start larding up on twinkies and pre-packaged red velvet cakes just because.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Thus, the only sane, rational, scientific approach must be to not only keep AI out if the schools, it must be to excise anything having to do with computers out of the schools. No AP CS. No graphing calculators. In fact, math and physics are CS-adjacent, so better get rid of those just to be safe.

      I also hear RFKjr wants to ban artificial food coloring and isn't a fan of the added sugar. Can't wait for the Dems to start larding up on twinkies and pre-packaged red velvet cakes just because.

      I don't know who is more brain damaged, you or RFK. That guy is actually dangerous. He's planning to make a list of autistic people from medical records. Wonder what other group started doing this close to a century ago...

    • Plenty of conservatives moving anti-Trump with this disaster cyberdumpsterfire administration. I'm not a "dem" and I seriously question "AI", especially in schools. MAGA is all labels and whatabouts, never any valid arguments. Getting destroyed everywhere they post online.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by drnb ( 2434720 )

        Plenty of conservatives moving anti-Trump with this disaster cyberdumpsterfire administration.

        Debunked on CNN of all places. Their polls show support down only 2%. Margin of error territory.

        I'm not a "dem" and I seriously question "AI", especially in schools.

        I guess you missed that "personalized education" has been a big research topic in academia and for mathematics some sort of AI is pretty much a given. Now the AI is focused, math expert systems, LLM trained on math and applied science discussion. Nothing like the LLMs we hear so much about in the news these days.

        • 2% movement is significant for a brainwashed cult. MAGA will turn on itself or the USA will turn into a horrible place to live. Freedom, my friend. Freedom.

          Your second point is basically what I wrote in my first comment.

    • It's funny to watch the usual idiots tie themselves into knots to never ever ever criticize anything Jesus H. Trump does. We all know AI can do some pretty neat things but is also a bit shit and a favorite product to sell for very rich scammers and grifters. We also all know that more or less any attempt to get technology into schools inevitable removes money from education and into the pockets of a large and deeply incompetent company.

      But when Trump suggests it, suddenly, ATTACK! Er, the other team of cour

  • Of course how an AI will teach and provide critical thinking skills depends on the AI is coded and trained. For example:

    Good Morning Student. Have you praised our Dear Leader this hour?

    According to our surveillance system, you have not. You can reduce the 100 demerits you will earn to only 50 if you praise now.

    Thank you. Your lunch ration shall now only be reduced by 50%.

    Today's lesson is about how tariffs work. Tariffs are paid by countries who send us their stuff not by consumers. REMEMBER this for the t

    • None of them have been vetted, although "peer review" is performed on the mechanics. Do educators, the people we hold responsible for teaching/learning agree?

      Probably not, but I can't speak for them.

      Instead, watch the textbook and learning materials industry go into the ditch. Watch teachers thwart AI because 1) it's not linked to chains-of-authorities and 2) they're going to eventually lose their jobs, and AI becomes responsible for imbuing humanity and character, and it has neither.

  • Executive.
    Orders.
    Are.
    Not.
    Laws.

  • Republicans realized half a century ago that an intelligent, literate, educated populace would not support their regressive policies, so instead of rethinking those policies they decided to dumb the population down. Since then, they've attacked education on every possible front, from school lunch programs to libraries to science to university policies. And: it's worked. They've created an entire generation of people equipped with poorly-functioning minds, and those people are just about perfect Republic

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