The order directs the U.S. secretary of education, the U.S. secretary of labor and the director of the National Science Foundation to work together to boost the number of AI courses and certificate programs available to high school students nationwide.
It also instructs the U.S. Department of Education to prioritize funding for teacher AI training, the Department of Labor to use financial incentives to expand AI-related apprenticeships, and the National Science Foundation to escalate research on the use of AI in education.
The executive order creates a White House Task Force on AI Education as well, directing it to set up a Presidential AI Challenge to showcase student and teacher AI achievements, establish public-private partnerships to support AI education, and to “utilize industry commitments and identify any federal funding mechanisms, including discretionary grants, that can be used to provide resources for K-12 AI education.”
Chaired by Michael Kratsios, director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the AI task force is to include Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Special Advisor for AI and Crypto David Sacks, among others, per the executive order.
Shortly after Trump signed the directive — one of seven education-related executive orders he signed yesterday — McMahon cheered it in a news release, stating that “American classrooms must better align their activities to meet the demands of accelerating innovation and a rapidly changing workforce.”
“As artificial intelligence reshapes every industrial sector, it is vitally important that the next generation of students is prepared to leverage this technology in all aspects of their professional lives,” she said in a public statement. “The Trump administration will lead the way in training our educators to foster early and responsible AI education in our classrooms to keep up American leadership in the global economy.”
A SEAT AT THE TABLE
Wednesday’s executive order underscores the importance of building AI literacy and expanding AI workforce opportunities, according to a public statement from Keith Krueger, CEO of the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), who emphasized that district leaders and educators must be involved with shaping these initiatives.
In separate emails to Government Technology today, other education and technology leaders weighed in on the directive, pointing out the need for sustainable funding to support school AI integration and predicting that such a shift will necessitate new approaches to teaching and learning.
Stacy Hawthorne, CoSN board chair and executive director of the EdTech Leaders Alliance, said that yesterday’s directive “signals that the conversation has matured from hype to long-term strategic planning.”
“I’m optimistic about the focus on workforce alignment and student opportunity, but what will make or break this effort is whether frontline voices of teachers, ed-tech leaders and school administrators are truly included,” Hawthorne wrote.
Julia Fallon, executive director of the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), wrote that SETDA will be “watching closely to see how forthcoming federal guidance defines responsible use and addresses critical issues like algorithmic bias, transparency, student data privacy, and support for educators.”
“It’s essential that state education agencies have a seat at the table in shaping these guidelines — and that their capacity-building needs are both recognized and backed with sustained funding,” Fallon said.
FUNDING CONCERNS
Kris Hagel, chief information officer for Peninsula School District in Washington, which has been lauded as an early leader on AI in K-12 education, wrote that he would like to see more details about funding for the executive order as well.
“We are looking at a drastic change in the skills that our workforce will need due to the advancement of AI, and focusing on the skills that all of our graduates need will be the critical work of the next five years,” Hagel said. “I wish the administration would make some sort of funding commitment regarding this, as the training is expensive, and schools and districts will incur significant costs as they ramp up this work.”
Alex Kotran, CEO of the nonprofit aiEDU, which works with schools to advance AI readiness, echoed those concerns about funding. He wrote that while he is glad to see the executive order codify the need to prepare learners for a “world where AI is everywhere,” changing a system as large and decentralized as K-12 schools will require a national movement — and substantial resources.
“Until the [executive order], it was unclear whether we would have the opportunity to leverage the federal government as a driver of this movement,” Kotran said. “On the other hand, we don’t know the extent to which the [executive order] will unlock new funding, and even an infusion of hundreds of millions is not going to be sufficient. But setting the agenda has ripple effects beyond government — it orients philanthropy, state government agencies and others to think about how they can provide the resources required.”
FUNDAMENTAL CHANGE
On top of securing funding for training and equipment to fully and safely implement AI in K-12 schools, education leaders may need to rethink pedagogy and best practices, too. Superintendent Michael Nagler of Mineola Public Schools, N.Y., named "superintendent of the year" in 2024 by CoSN and the American Association of School Administrators, wrote that schools may need support for changes to the structure of education in general, so that teachers and students can benefit from the use of this technology.
“Advancing AI shouldn't be limited to a discussion about products. I believe the impact of AI will fundamentally change how we teach and learn,” Nagler said. “So, when leaders think about this initiative, we should be discussing the needs of Generation Alpha and how schools need to shift practices to align with new technologies.”
