
American teachers hit pause on A.I.
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Question is whether you will help shape artificial intelligence.
A
There is this video supercut that I love. AI is rewriting production as we sit here. I know it.
C
Deal with it. Like I said, it's a tool.
A
You may have seen it by now. It's over. Jaunty music and it's from our buddies over at 404 Media. It's of people booing a series of college graduation speakers when they talk about AI.
C
The rise of artificial intelligence is the next industrial revolution.
A
Oh, and when I sat down with Randy Weingarten, I wanted to ask her about it. Randy is the president of the American Federation of Teachers and she is thinking a lot about AI right now.
C
The generation that's graduating from college right now is really rattled.
A
Now look, Randy represents her union. She knows that AI could be a threat to her teachers jobs. But she's not wrong that no one, especially people entering the workforce right now, knows exactly what to do about it.
C
I think what you're seeing is a lot of anxiety and a lot of fear juxtaposed against a very laissez faire attitude by this administration about AI basically saying let the billionaires and let big tech do whatever it wants to do, regardless of what happens with the climate, regardless of what happens with, you know, job displacement. And I think that there's a huge unease about that. And that's why you're hearing the booth
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Randy and her union have put out a 10 point plan about AI. Some of the highlights no screens at all through second grade, no student facing AI in elementary school, no AI chatbots until at least 16, and a tech tax to make big tech contribute to education funding. The whole thing reads like a bit of a reckoning because for the past two decades or more, technology has crept into education, from Chromebooks in class to Google based grading. Today on the Do American schools Need a Tech Detox? I'm Lizzie o' Leary and you're listening to what Next tbd, a show about technology, power and how the future will be determined. Stick around. This episode is brought to you by Bill, the intelligent finance platform that helps businesses and accounting firms scale with proven results. Here at what Next tbd, we know business, and in businesses across America, smart people are stuck doing the grunt work. You know the drill. Those hours when you could be brainstorming big ideas, you're instead filling in spreadsheets, filling out invoices, or hunting down somebody else's signature. Bill wants to change that. With AI powered automation, Bill removes the busywork from your accounts payables workflow. They handle capturing invoices, routing approvals, and syncing with your accounting software so that your team can focus on growth instead of paperwork. Bill is so reliable, 98 of the top 100 accounting firms in the US trust it to simplify and secure their bill payment processes. Bill's handled over a trillion dollars in secure pay and is ranked number one overall on G2's 2025 list of best accounting and finance products. So stop the guesswork and start scaling with the proven choice. Go with a company whose financial infrastructure is trusted by nearly half a million customers. Ready to talk with an expert? Visit bill.comproven and get a $150 gift card as a thank you. That's bill.comprovost proven terms and conditions apply. See Offer page for details. Starting your own business is never easy. Starting your own podcast? That seems easy, but actually, there are a ton of landmines to step on along the way. Finding producers, selling ads, and connecting to wi fi. Oh, does that sound straightforward? It's not. I'm talking about sitting in coffee houses for hours after buying one scone. I'm talking about sitting in hotel lobbies and pretending your backpack is luggage. It's torture. I spent so much time making my home office look professional, but my connection didn't get the memo. The last thing you want during a major interview is for your guest's voice to turn into a stutter. When your bandwidth can't keep up with your ambition, your home office starts feeling like an amateur operation pretty fast. And for a podcast, the Internet is key because the Internet is how we talk to almost everyone. And no matter the guest, a laggy connection can ruin an exclusive interview. Great connectivity isn't a bonus, it's the whole game. An AT&T business is here to help. They've got the tools, team and expertise you need for a stable network you can rely on. And when you can rely on the network, you can get back to thinking about the more important stuff, like nabbing that great guest and getting back to work. AT&T business Built to Work Get AT and t business@business.att.com.
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Can you run me through your plan? Give me the highlights?
C
Sure. I call it Devices down, eyes up, hands on. Because we've learned that kids, particularly younger kids, because of screens, because of AI, have really had reduced attention, reduced cognition, reduced persistence. These are all really important skills that kids need to have and know to be okay in the 21st century. So what we're trying to do is say let's put screens down for a bit pre kindergarten through second grade. Unless there's a compelling reason, let's stop with the AI in early elementary school, in elementary school. And let's instead really focus not only on the foundational skills. Reading is fundamental, basic numeracy is fundamental. But let's really use active learning. So we are helping kids practice how to think, struggle with thinking, applying knowledge, as well as connecting with each other. And we have learned from what we do in career tech ed, what we do in active civics debates, things like that, that this kind of learning really works to help kids have the skills and knowledge they need for the 21st century. And futurists are telling us that skills like curiosity, persistence and thinking are what will really help equip our kids In a world of AI, Tell me what
A
you're hearing from your members right now. Because there are what, some 13, 14,000 public school districts across the country. What are teachers doing with AI? What are they being told to do? What are they not being told to do? It feels a little bit like a free for all right now.
C
So number one, it is a free for all. And in fact, there's a recent Gallup poll that they did with the Walton foundation that said a whole bunch of teachers, just like a whole bunch of people in public are using AI, but 2/3 of teachers get almost no guidance and a third of teachers get no guidance. And I think what's happened is this is why you actually need a federal government to give you some policy, some sense of guidance about how you seize the future. And the fact that this Department of Education federally basically wants to sell itself off for parts and feels like they have no role in education. You have a lot of people that are basically kind of just looking at each other and saying, well, what should we be doing now? For the last 20 years, what they were doing was increasing the amount of ed tech in schools. And that now has gotten infused with AI. So by the fact of it's not just Covid, but you see basically district after district after district kind of thinking, well, AI should have a role in schools because AI is going to have a role in society without actually thinking about what is the effect of things like cognitive offloading, what is the effect on attention, what is the effect on this? So all I'm saying in a very non 15 second way of saying it, is that there's no guidance, there's no sense of what schooling should look like to prepare kids, prepare families for this future of AI. And there is a very sinking fear that lots of people have about what is AI doing to society, what is AI doing to the climate, what is AI doing to our brains? So normally schools would be, you know, who mitigates all this harm and who tries to navigate it for society, but with the sense of, well, how do
A
you do that when you have a federal education department that wants to kind of make itself obsolete.
C
Exactly. So that's why the federal, you know, the federal Department of Education doesn't run any schools. But normally it's the federal government with these huge, big seismic changes in society that helps create a sense of guidance. And that's the, I think that's the confusion, that's the chaos. That's what everybody is seeing because everybody's now looking for, okay, who's going to do it. Who's going to say something? And I would just say that all the culture wars of the last five years have made people really, really gun shy. So, you know, because people are just afraid that if they chart out a future on something, somebody's going to come to a school board meeting and scream. And so I think that what you're seeing in school, and this is what I hear from parents and teachers. They're like, oh, my God, what am I supposed to do? And I hear fear from parents and I hear from teachers, oh, my God, what am I supposed to do? So we actually, last year, you know, and it was somewhat controversial because we did it with Microsoft and OpenAI and Anthropic. We just basically said, teachers have to learn this whether they use it or not. They have to learn the tool. And I don't have a fairy godmother that's giving me 10 to 20 million dollars to educate teachers to. I'm going to take the money from where I can take it, but with the caveat that they're not going to control it. And those folks, those tech companies are not controlling it. But even that created controversy.
A
Well, yeah, so I want to talk about that, actually. So you're talking about this agreement that the AFT made last year with Microsoft, OpenAI, Anthropic. They provide, I believe it's $23 million for funding for this AI training for five years. Hub for teachers. Okay, for five years. Um, that seems kind of different from what you're talking about today, which is the worries about cognitive decline, cognitive offloading, what kids are doing. Help me understand the difference. Like, why would you guys take money from those big companies and then come back and say, AI, you know, needs to have better guardrails?
C
Because we said from the time we took that money, AI needs better guardrails. But you have to find a way for teachers to be in the driver's seat, to actually learn what the tool is and how to use the tool and have that kind of agency all too often. And maybe this is because of my experience for all these years when things are done to teachers, like, here's the new great curriculum that if you use it, everything will be peaches and roses from here on in. And how many teachers used to tease, okay, here's the great new curriculum that we get in August, and by October, it's gone.
A
So does that mean this stuff belongs in a bargaining agreement?
C
Well, it should be in a bargaining agreement. And there are places like, we have collective bargaining services all the time for teachers and for Our other members, we are actually now the fastest growing union in the United States of America. So we do a lot of this teaching and learning for people. Last summer we had a whole few days on how do you bargain about AI in classrooms and in hospitals. So, yes, I think that it's a term and condition of employment. But separate and apart from that, what I'm saying is there's this new tool, it is affecting people's lives full stop. Somebody has to give some guidance and some education about what it is, how to use it, how to protect people from the harms, and not just by the spin even of the people that we have partnered with about how is the greatest new invention you know, in the world.
A
So what are you hearing from people who have reacted to this plan to. From districts, from chancellors? What do they say?
C
So the chancellor in New York has called me almost immediately to sit down, and we're sitting down next week. There's a bunch of other people who have talked to us about it and we're sitting down with them as well. But that's less important to me than what I've heard from parents and classroom teachers around the country. From teachers I've heard, thank God somebody has a plan. And even if the plan is not perfect, we need to have a plan for how to help kids learn, how to help kids connect. What is it that kids need to know and be able to do in the 21st century? And how do we actually have an educational plan for that? And what do we need to get there? So the oh, shit moment for me, Lizzy, was when I heard Jonathan Haidt last August in a book club. We were having a book club about the anxious generation, what a teachery thing to do. And he had just finished the new research that showed that AI and screens, screens in particular, his research was about screenshots that screens were really creating cognitive decline and really creating reduction in attention. So if that's happening with the youngest kids, how, when their brains are the most supple, how are we going to help them exercise the muscle of learning?
A
So I guess one of the things that I'm curious about. So ChatGPT, right? Rolled out in November of 2022. There's tons of reporting. 404 Media has done great reporting, pulling all these public records of AI use in the classroom. One from the Louisiana Department of Education, you know, they've got this whole PowerPoint and I guess it makes me wonder a little bit.
C
We do too. Our common sense guardrails from the day, from a few days After Chap GPT came up.
A
Okay, but it's. We're talking in June of 2026. Why did it take you guys so long?
C
Well, first off, we've been doing these guardrails for a bunch of years. And secondly, I think what's happened is it really took us to understanding the research on attention. That was the oh shit moment
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C
Yes.
A
What are they?
C
Well, let me put it this way. I wish we could undo the pandemic.
A
Well, I think a lot of people do.
C
I also, I wish that we knew what we knew at the end of the pandemic, at the beginning of the pandemic. I wish we knew that if you had really good ventilation and you had good testing, that schools would have been able to be reopened far in advance. I mean, we were the union that actually said a month into the pandemic, we put a plan out saying schools should be reopened, but they have to be reopened safely. So I think that the amount of tech has, particularly in elementary schools, I wish we could have slowed that down. But that didn't just start with the pandemic. There was 10 years beforehand, lots of, you know, ed tech was supposed to be the magic bullet. It was supposed to be helping kids with engagement and how much time and effort was spent putting in a whiteboard to every classroom instead of a blackboard? And look, you know, is edtech better? Is a whiteboard and what you can do on a whiteboard better than the old Xerox and the old, you know, film clip? I'm sure it is, but it is the balance that I think we got wrong.
A
I think, though, there is a really difficult thing that we are asking kids and families, not to mention teachers, to do. So I'm gonna use again our home state, home city, though, different districts. As an example, when you are in New York, once you hit third grade, you're taking online assessments. So it feels like there is a bit of a mismatch here where you are saying kids need to be away from screens, but also there's a system set up where they have to be assessed on a computer. That feels like a very difficult thing for families to handle.
C
Well, maybe they shouldn't be assessed on a computer. My point here is maybe we should start thinking about, again, the question, what do kids need to know and be able to do? In the 21st century and back. Map that question from there. Maybe it shouldn't just simply be me, this classroom teacher from Clara Barton High School in Brooklyn, New York, who had happened to, by the grace of God, be the president of the UFT and now the president of the aft, who says, stop. Let's think about what's going on based upon the research. I know why we have online assessments. We have them because it's easier to grade. But maybe, just maybe, there's something wrong with the assessment process. Maybe we shouldn't have tests every single year. Maybe we should go back to grade span testing where we have tests in fourth and eighth grade. Maybe we should actually stop trying to crunch in everything into what the accountability system looks like as opposed to actually thinking about what do we need to do to help our kids thrive.
A
Who wants to have that conversation with you? Are there people in power who want to have that conversation with you?
C
I don't know. I don't know.
A
I mean, you've resigned. I'm curious, in part because you are on the dnc. You resigned from the dnc, and I know that you have the ear of Democratic leaders.
C
Let me just say a whole lot of people in the last few days have said, can I sit down with you and talk about your plan? I'm not saying that this is the be all and the end all, but I'm saying if somebody has a better plan, put it out there, do something comprehensive. Stop with the, we're educators, they're the leaders, the Linda McMahon's look, the Donald trumps, the school superintendents, like actually have the courage of your convictions. We know attention is being limited, that we are not teaching kids how to think. We are not giving them the tools to struggle with thinking. Once that hit my pea brain, if I didn't say something, shame on me. And so that's the process that we've gone through as the AFT in the last few months. I didn't want to just say it until I really studied it, until I really understood it, but that's why, that's, that's why those first two proposals, the, you know, basically no screens unless compelling reasons. Look, you can train kids to take a test on a screen. You can. You know, we do so much test prep in so many ways, but wouldn't it be better if there was active learning in kindergarten, first and second grade? Wouldn't it be better if there was play? Wouldn't it be better if kids actually talked to each other, engaged with each other, struggled with learning, learned not just to memorize the Alphabet, but understood what A was for and what A could be about. I mean, there's lots of things that I think if we actually undo, if we untethered ourselves from the screens during school in the lowest grades, when kids minds are so supple, there would be some magic that would happen.
A
So there is something in this proposal, in your 10 point plan that I actually want to zero in on because it's not just about the plan and it's not just about AI. In here you have what I think of as like a Trojan horse for the biggest education policy question of the last 25 years, which is what happened when states and localities pulled funding back from education after 2008? Yes, you say ensure adequate funding of education by states and the federal government. I don't think that, you know, anyone on the left side of the aisle would disagree with you about that. However, as I know, you know, it is very hard to undo a thing that has been done. Where, where does one get that money?
C
Well, let me say this. The first step would be to stop the privatization and the use of vouchers,
A
which the administration is expanding.
C
Which the administration is expanding. So the first step would be to stop the disinvestment from schools and to stop taking money that people pay from property taxes and from other taxes and put it into private schools. Anyone who's religious, you want to go to a Catholic school, you want to go to a Jewish school. That is your right as a parent to, to send your kids to a religious school. But the data already is. Number one, most people who take vouchers already send their kids to private schools. Number two, there is nothing on the research record that shows that vouchers and these privatization of schooling actually improves achievement. Number three, it takes a lot of money away from kids that still go to public schools. So the first thing that we can do is actually stop the disinvestment. And second, I think that we have to make the case about why money matters and whether or not the public good of public education is worth paying for. And that's the case that I'm trying to make. But we have to fight for a public education system that people want. We have to fight for strengthening it to make sure that it works for all kids.
A
So it seems to me that the road for that or road to that
C
leads through the midterms on a national basis. It clearly leads to the midterms. The Republicans have a plan. Their plan is to destroy public education and to do it through privatization and things like that. What I'm saying, and I am a Democrat and I will always be a Democrat. I'm not on the DNC anymore, but I am a Democrat. Democrats have to have a plan for how we help our children succeed. And that.
A
Is there anyone in the Democratic Party you think does?
C
Well, I'm at ewa and I heard Wes Moore talk about a bunch of things that sounded like a plan.
A
The governor of Maryland, for people who are not familiar.
C
Yeah, I heard him talk about things like career tech education and service learning and the investment. And I see where their test scores have gone, which had been way, way, way up in the last couple of years. So I think that there are plans, but I don't. I think what's, what's lost is where is the Democratic candidates who are already starting to run for president? Where is their priority of the children of the country? And not just a priority that says, we hate that Donald Trump cut Medicaid. Yes, we do. We hate that he cut Snap. Yes, we do. We hate that he has actually deprofessionalized. He's really hurting every young person that's trying to go to college and to be in professions like teaching and nursing because they're about to actually cut off the subsidies that these kids now get in terms of student loans. So there's a lot of things that they've done that we can decry. But where is the positive, proactive plan that says, how are we going to prepare our kids for life, for career, for college, for citizenship?
A
Randi Weingarten, thank you so much for your time.
C
I really appreciate it.
A
Randi Weingarten is the president of the American Federation of Teachers. And that is it for our show today. What Next TBD is produced by Evan Campbell, Madeline Ducharme, Rob Guenther, and Patrick Fort. Our show was edited by Paige Osborne, who is the senior supervising producer for what Next and what Next tbd. Mia Lobel is the executive producer of podcasts at Slate. And TBD is part of the larger what Next family. We will be back next week with another episode. I'm Lizzie o'. Leary. Thanks for listening. Evan, where are you right now?
B
Well, despite United canceling my flight out, I somehow made it to Taipei for Computex 2026. And, you know, it's my first time in Taipei. And I've got to say, so far, it's been pretty amazing.
A
It is so wild to me that you're in Taiwan at this premier global technology trade show. What is it like?
B
Yeah, I've been to conferences before, but I'VE never been to something like this. You know, first off that the conference is gigantic. It spans three buildings and is hosting thousands of venues vendors. And the vendors range from big names like Nvidia, AMD and Qualcomm to small startups that you may have never heard of. I've seen everything from advancements in robotics that assist with surgeries, to the latest in data center prefabs, to just about anything related to real world AI applications. In fact, this conference really seems to be entirely centered around taking AI out of the theoretical and into real world adoption across almost every industry imaginable.
A
Obviously, AI is the thing that everyone is talking about. How would you describe AI's role at the conference this year?
B
Well, the show opened with a keynote from Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Aman, which was the first thing that I attended. And, you know, his address really made it clear how much computext was highlighting the cutting edge of AI. A majority of his keynote was spent talking about what our futures with agentic AI will look like and how it will touch every single piece of technology that we have. You know, things like phones, wearables, cars. His vision was all of it will be powered by agents who serve you. But in order to do that, he said, we need to move away from devices that require users to initiate the interaction or the command, and into devices that are more autonomous. You know, I think the idea is that agents follow you from device to device. So, like, even when you walk away from, say, your laptop and you go get in your car to run an errand or pick up your kid, you know, the agent is following you and is up to date with the information that you need.
A
One of the biggest challenges that the AI industry has right now is how to provide power and infrastructure for the tech as it scales so rapidly. How much has that been a focus at Computex?
B
You know, I'm glad you asked, because this is probably the thing I was most anticipating when I was preparing for this trip. Because you can talk all about how agentic AI is going to revolutionize people's lives, but it's all moot if there's no infrastructure for it, which we all know has been a challenge in the past couple years. Luckily for me, so much of Computex this year has been focused on AI infrastructure for the agentic age. You know, during his keynote, Cristiano Aman introduced 6G wireless Internet for artificial intelligence. You know, the idea is that it will allow for quick and constant communication between devices that already will have agents constantly working in the background and communicating off each other. In fact, connectivity is one of the most talked about things I've seen while I'm here. On the second day of the conference, Marvell CEO Matt Murphy outlined how the next big transformation in AI like compute and memory before it is in connectivity. He outlined a future where millions of computer processors will make up one singular massive computing engine and that requires extremely fast and reliable connections. And to highlight that, he brought out Nvidia's Jensen Huang to talk about their expanding partnership into optic connectivity. The two of them really drove home this idea that as data centers grow and the infrastructure scales, the next big leap for the technology is how quickly that data can be passed back and forth.
A
So what are your takeaways from the
B
first couple of days that collaboration is at the focal point of this conference? You know, every conference, every vendor, just about every person I've talked to has highlighted how they're all working together with other companies to make the latest product products. And it makes sense, you know, in order to move AI forward into real world use, it will take an all hands on deck approach. And it's clear that Computex is fostering this collaborative environment for these companies. On top of that, they just announced the dates for Computex 2027. They'll be from June 1st to June 4th next year. So I expect any company that's pushing technology forward will be there next year as well.
A
Evan, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule at Computex to chat with me. This segment was sponsored by Computex. And now back to the show.
D
Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16,000 fast moving companies like Ramp, Cursor and Harvey who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started@vanta.com.
Published: June 5, 2026
Host: Lizzie O’Leary (A)
Main Guest: Randi Weingarten (C), President, American Federation of Teachers
Special Segment: Evan Campbell (B) reporting from Computex 2026
This episode explores the future of artificial intelligence (AI) in American education, focusing on how teachers, students, and institutions are grappling with the rapid rise of AI. Host Lizzie O’Leary interviews Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), about her union’s newly released 10-point plan regarding the use of technology and AI in schools. The discussion covers anxiety among new graduates, the federal government’s “laissez-faire” approach, the challenge of preparing kids for an AI-driven world, and the broader implications of technology in education post-pandemic. The episode also includes a segment with Evan Campbell reporting from Computex 2026, spotlighting trends in AI infrastructure.
Opening Context: Lizzie describes a viral video of college graduates booing speakers who mention AI, signaling widespread unease about AI’s impact on jobs and society.
Driving Forces for Anxiety:
Highlights of the Plan: (07:55)
Core Rationale:
AFT’s Agreement: Partnered with Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic for $23 million over five years for AI training, with the stipulation of maintaining educators' autonomy. (13:56)
Balancing Leveraging and Guardrails:
Positive Teacher Response: Relief at having a plan, even if imperfect.
"Oh, Shit" Moment: Jonathan Haidt’s research on cognitive decline and diminished attention in children due to screens.
Admitting Mistakes:
Tension:
Tech Plan as Trojan Horse for School Funding Debate:
Call to Action for Democrats:
Context: Evan reports from the world’s premier tech conference in Taipei.
AI Everywhere: Keynotes and vendor booths center on agentic AI—technology designed to follow users across devices and anticipate needs.
AI Infrastructure Focus:
Takeaway: Industry-wide collaboration is key; Computex has become a venue for cross-company partnerships to build AI’s future infrastructure.
This episode critically examines the uncertain territory American education faces as AI rapidly transforms classrooms, pedagogy, and the skills students will need. Randi Weingarten calls for “devices down, eyes up, hands on” as a path forward, driven by new research on attention and cognition. The episode spotlights the lack of leadership and clear policy from the federal government, the necessity of equipping teachers—and not just students—with agency and knowledge for the AI age, and the political/financial crossroads facing public education. The global tech industry’s concurrent leap in AI infrastructure showcased at Computex serves as a backdrop, underscoring the stakes and pace of change.