The bill, from first-term state Rep. Nikki Rivera, D-Lancaster, follows the state Department of Education’s rejection earlier this year of an application for a charter school that sought to use AI technology to evaluate student needs, design curricula and even teach — highlighting a growing debate over how educational institutions should navigate AI.
Unbound Academy reportedly provides core learning in two hours or less per day, with human educators serving as “guides” while AI directs instruction.
Rivera, who taught high school Spanish for 30 years prior to running for office, said the institute’s application was a wake-up call.
“AI is a tool. It’s not the teacher, it’s the tool for the teacher,” she said.
In a recent memo, Rivera said her proposed bill would deny AI-powered charter and cyber charter applications as a safeguard against “unproven instructional practices,” requiring district and staff time and resources to evaluate the applications, and redirecting taxpayer dollars “from those manipulating the law for their own profit at the expense of our students.”
Rivera’s proposed legislation in Pennsylvania echoes policies elsewhere in the nation. In 2024, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2370, barring AI instructors from teaching in the state’s community colleges.
“As AI grows increasingly capable in academic settings, many community college faculty have raised concerns about the potential displacement of human instructors,” the Faculty Association of California Community Colleges said in a news release when AB 2370 cleared the Legislature, indicating it “ensures that a human being serves as the instructor, while still permitting AI’s use as a supplementary tool.”
Rivera shared concerns regarding the prioritization of speed, which AI enhances, over the productive struggle of learning, and cautioned against ceding educational control to chatbots and algorithms.
“I’m a big advocate for building the human brain. However, because we are human, there is a level of information digestion that we have to do,” she said. “While there are programs out there that can translate for me in other languages, it's still important for my brain to learn other languages. We need to keep exercising the brain.”
Professionals in education worldwide appear to share her unease.
A 2025 survey by the Digital Education Council (DEC) aggregated responses from approximately 1,681 faculty members at 52 higher-education institutions in 28 countries. The survey found 83 percent of faculty expressed concern about students’ ability to critically evaluate AI-generated outputs. The survey also revealed that only 17 percent of faculty considered themselves at “advanced or expert” level in AI proficiency, and 80 percent said their institutions lack clarity on AI’s teaching role.
According to DEC CEO Alessandro Di Lullo, the data suggests that while the majority of faculty believe AI has the potential to significantly transform the roles of educators, enthusiasm is tempered by uncertainty over implementation.
“Faculty want to use AI, but the lack of training and institutional clarity is holding them back,” Di Lullo said. But, he said, “both institutions and individuals must act now to embrace AI literacy, or risk leaving educators and students unprepared for the future.”
As technology continues to rapidly develop, Rivera said she hopes to continue creating and effectively implementing safeguards for students and teachers in real time.
“I really want to keep the person, the human, the teacher, as the forefront of a child's education and provide that teacher with all the tools we can,” she said. “That's my goal.”
