Parents Push Back as Schools Embrace Artificial Intelligence

As Washington promotes artificial intelligence in American classrooms, a new national survey indicates that parents overwhelmingly want schools to slow down.

A report released by the Institute for Family Studies found that 56% of parents want AI blocked in schools, while another 26% want its use reduced. Seventy-seven percent believe the technology will harm children’s learning, and 73% fear it could expose students to serious risks.

YouGov surveyed 2,000 parents of school-age children between July 27 and August 13, 2026. Although the poll measured parental attitudes rather than AI’s actual educational effects, its findings reveal a significant divide between federal priorities and family concerns.

President Donald Trump’s April 2025 executive order promoted AI literacy, teacher training, and classroom integration as the United States competes technologically with China. Critics, however, argue that teaching students about AI is not the same as making them dependent upon it for reading, writing, and problem-solving.

“Parents, in other words, have a broader view of what it means for their kids to thrive than leaders in Washington,” report co-author Michael Toscano said.

Only 11% of surveyed parents supported an educational model centered on tablets and AI. By comparison, 38% preferred restricting AI to computer laboratories while keeping printed books and handwriting central to instruction. Another 25% favored a broader return to books and handwritten work.

Toscano warned that parents can already see children treating AI as a shortcut, potentially causing essential intellectual abilities to weaken. When chatbots generate answers or rewrite essays, completed assignments may no longer reflect what students genuinely understand.

Concern about classroom AI also crosses political lines. The survey found that 75% of Republican parents and 72% of Democratic parents support pausing its introduction into schools.

Parents reported unequal influence over how the technology is used. Among families whose children had encountered classroom AI, 84% of secular private-school parents said they could shape its use, compared with 49% of public-school parents.

Advocates are urging school boards to pause mandatory AI programs until independent evaluations demonstrate educational value and adequate safeguards. They also want schools to disclose what student data vendors collect, preserve teacher-led instruction, offer equivalent non-AI assignments, and regularly require students to demonstrate their abilities without technological assistance.

AI may become an important educational tool, but parents are sending a clear message: preparing children for the future must not come at the cost of teaching them to think for themselves.

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