Schools Race for AI Rules as Learning Gets Tested

student-led AI – A new RAND survey suggests only about one in three students say their school has a school-wide AI policy, while teachers worry AI is making critical thinking harder. In an EdSurge podcast, education leaders argue policy shouldn’t come first—real learning start

The first time you hear it, it sounds like a classroom problem. The second time, it feels like a parent’s fear.

On the latest EdSurge Podcast, the scene isn’t a school board meeting—it’s a kitchen table. EdSurge editor-in-chief Sarah McKibben describes watching her two middle schoolers work through AI in real time. where the day’s questions quickly turn into something sharper: not whether AI is present. but what it’s teaching when it shows up in the smallest moments of school life.

The episode arrives as schools race to write AI policies. But Aleta Margolis—founder and president of the Center for Inspired Teaching—pushes back on the idea that a rule should be the starting point. Margolis argues real progress begins with conversation. and that guidelines co-created with students can lead to better outcomes than top-down rule-making.

The data in the episode doesn’t let the debate stay theoretical.

A new RAND American Youth Panel survey found that only about one in three students say their school has a school-wide AI policy. That gap—between what adults assume is in place and what students say they actually experience—lands uncomfortably in the middle of the rush to regulate.

Teachers aren’t waiting for perfect clarity, either. A recent NPR and Ipsos poll found that 54 percent of teachers say AI is making it harder for students to learn critical thinking skills. Nearly three in four believe its impact on education will exceed that of the internet or computers.

McKibben brings the tension into sharper focus by describing the mix of productive and concerning AI use she’s seeing with her children. One example is a student using an AI humanizer app to avoid plagiarism detection when submitting AI-written essays. The moment is small. but the implication lands hard: the technology isn’t only being used to help students write—it’s being used to bypass what schools are trying to measure.

That’s where both guests converge, even if they’re coming at it from different angles.

The episode’s core concern isn’t framed as opposition to AI itself. Instead, it circles around what students are learning to do while using it. The question becomes whether students are thinking with AI—struggling through ideas. shaping arguments. learning the process—or using it to bypass the thinking entirely.

The facts land like a warning and a reminder at the same time. Schools are moving quickly to draft policies, yet many students say those policies aren’t clearly in place at all. Teachers report that AI is making critical thinking harder. and they also see its long-term educational influence as larger than earlier computing shifts. On the kitchen table, meanwhile, AI is already mixed into the school-day reality—sometimes helpfully, sometimes as a workaround.

The podcast doesn’t offer an easy slogan for what comes next. What it does. through conversation and everyday examples. makes the stakes feel immediate: if the goal is education rather than compliance. then the first step might not be another policy document. It might be asking students what they’re doing with AI—and what they’re learning when they do it.

AI in education school AI policies RAND American Youth Panel teacher concerns critical thinking EdSurge Podcast Aleta Margolis Center for Inspired Teaching Sarah McKibben NPR Ipsos poll