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House subcommittee hearing stresses teacher training and guardrails as AI spreads in classrooms
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Summary
Witnesses and members agreed AI can save teachers time and personalize learning but emphasized teachers need sustained professional development, local flexibility, and federal support to prevent uneven adoption, privacy risks and widened disparities.
Chairman Kiley opened the hearing of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s subcommittee on early childhood, elementary and secondary education by saying, “AI is transforming schools across America,” and laying out both the potential and the risks as teachers and districts adopt the technology.
Witnesses and members converged on two central themes: AI should be a classroom tool that supports teachers, not replaces them, and effective use requires sustained, teacher‑centered professional development. Anish Sahony, chief executive officer of Teach for America, told the panel, “AI cannot replace teachers,” arguing that the future of learning “will require a blending of technology and human expertise.” Michelle Blatt, West Virginia’s state superintendent, described statewide guidance and pilots that let districts adapt tools locally and said the guidance has been updated twice since 2024 to reflect rapid technological change.
The hearing highlighted practical approaches members and witnesses said make training feasible in busy school contexts: brief virtual sessions followed by in‑school coaching, classroom‑embedded professional learning, and co‑designed curricula. Witnesses repeatedly cautioned that one‑off workshops are insufficient. David Slickheis of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education recommended sustained coaching: “there needs to be a coach in that school that is going into the classrooms with the teachers, showing them examples of how to use the AI effectively.”
Members also asked how to measure whether AI actually improves learning. The committee heard examples teachers report as promising—one teacher in Houston who used AI‑enabled translation and personalization and reported a 20% test score increase—but witnesses and members urged rigorous, large‑scale research before scaling programs widely. Slickheis called for funding for studies to determine which AI implementations improve student achievement and which may harm social and emotional outcomes.
Finally, several members pressed for federal support to close resource gaps. Ranking Member Bonamici emphasized the role of federal programs in professional development and said restoring or funding national capacity (for example, the Institute of Education Sciences and the Office of Educational Technology) would help generate guidance and neutral research rather than leaving schools to rely chiefly on private vendors.
The subcommittee adjourned after members and witnesses agreed on common goals—supporting teachers, protecting student privacy, and investing in research and PD—while noting that implementation details, funding and oversight remain unresolved.
