Trump orders Ed Dept to make AI a national priority while plotting agency’s death

Donald Trump's executive order requiring artificial intelligence training in education as a national priority has been met with enthusiasm and confusion.

On the one hand, his plans to promote early AI training in K–12 schools appear to be "critical," as Trump says, to "maintain America’s global dominance in this technological revolution for future generations." To that end, the order established an AI Presidential Challenge to highlight significant student and educator achievements and encourage innovative thinking.

"It is the policy of the United States to promote AI literacy and proficiency among Americans by promoting the appropriate integration of AI into education, providing comprehensive AI training for educators, and fostering early exposure to AI concepts and technology to develop an AI-ready workforce and the next generation of American AI innovators," Trump's order said.

But on the other hand, Trump's plan depends on staffing and funding after several rounds of severe cuts in agencies he hopes will somehow find existing funding for his initiative. His plan also hinges on the existence of the Department of Education, which Trump is simultaneously seeking to eliminate. Only about half the staff are left at the DOE, EdWeek reported.

John Bailey, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former director of the Office of Educational Technology under George W. Bush, told EdWeek that "it’s hard to kind of understand at a time when they’re deprioritizing federal education policy and priorities, how to reconcile that with establishing a national priority in this area." But possibly, he suggested, a sleeker department could streamline adoption of AI initiatives.

However, perhaps critically, EdWeek pointed out, Trump recently cut "the team at the Education Department that was tasked with framing a national educational technology plan under multiple administrations and assisting states and districts in implementing technology in schools."

Trump pushes for industry involvement

It seems clear that Trump's executive order was a reaction to China's announcement about AI education reforms last week, as Reuters reported. Elsewhere, Singapore and Estonia have laid out their AI education initiatives, Forbes reported, indicating that AI education is increasingly considered critical to any nation's success.

Trump's vision for the US requires training teachers and students about what AI is and what it can do. He offers no new appropriations to fund the initiative; instead, he directs a new AI Education Task Force to find existing funding to cover both research into how to implement AI in education and the resources needed to deliver on the executive order's promises.

Although AI advocates applauded Trump's initiative, the executive order's vagueness makes it uncertain how AI education tools will be assessed as Trump pushes for AI to be integrated into "all subject areas." Possibly using AI in certain educational contexts could disrupt learning by confabulating misinformation, a concern that the Biden administration had in its more cautious approach to AI education initiatives.

Trump also seems to push for much more private sector involvement than Biden did.

The order recommended that education institutions collaborate with industry partners and other organizations to "collaboratively develop online resources focused on teaching K–12 students foundational AI literacy and critical thinking skills." These partnerships will be announced on a "rolling basis," the order said. It also pushed students and teachers to partner with industry for the Presidential AI Challenge to foster collaboration.

For Trump's AI education plan to work, he will seemingly need the DOE to stay intact. However, so far, Trump has not acknowledged this tension. In March, he ordered the DOE to dissolve, with power returned to states to ensure "the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely."

Were that to happen, at least 27 states and Puerto Rico—which EdWeek reported have already laid out their own AI education guidelines—might push back, using their power to control federal education funding to pursue their own AI education priorities and potentially messing with Trump's plan.