Trump Wants AI in Classrooms. Where are the Safeguards?

U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to expand the use of artificial intelligence in K-12 schools nationwide may help the country stay competitive in the global AI race, but experts warn it may also increase cybersecurity and privacy risks.

See Also: Securing Data in the AI Era

The White House issued executive orders Wednesday targeting the American education system, including a plan to launch public-private partnerships and a task force to expand AI in K-12 education, with incentives like the “Presidential AI Challenge” to boost teacher training and student engagement. The order directs federal agencies on the task force to collaborate with leading AI organizations on developing new resources for K-12 AI education, a move aimed at accelerating the use of AI tools in the U.S. education system.

AI and emerging technology experts called the order a meaningful step toward cementing American leadership in AI and welcomed several of its implementation tools, but also warned that it lacks strong oversight and pathways to protect sensitive student data. Multiple AI researchers and security analysts urged the federal government to create safeguards that keep AI agents and other tech tools separate from sensitive school datasets to prevent accidental exposure.

Implementing AI in schools will require careful attention to safety and privacy, said Darren Meyer, security research advocate at Checkmarx. Deployers must “exercise caution in how they balance the need to monitor for abuse … without creating new privacy and safety problems in the process.”

“Wide-scale adoption across U.S. schools will likely increase the attack surface for malicious actors,” Meyer told Information Security Media Group, adding that “defenders will have to be ready to monitor and quickly respond to evolving adversarial techniques.”

The order directs the secretary of education and the director of the National Science Foundation to prioritize discretionary grant programs that help educators integrate AI tools into classrooms. The administration said the goal is to give Americans early exposure to AI in education while “fostering a culture of innovation and critical thinking that will solidify our nation’s leadership in the AI-driven future.”

“America’s youth need opportunities to cultivate the skills and understanding necessary to use and create the next generation of AI technology,” the White House said in a fact sheet accompanying the order, adding that early AI training “will demystify this technology and prepare America’s students to be confident participants in the AI-assisted workforce.”

The order includes no specific provisions to safeguard student data or prevent private AI firms from profiting off school information or using it to train their models. The apparent security gap introduces “serious data privacy and cybersecurity risks” to the U.S. education system, said Ja-Nae Duane, an academic director at Brown University’s School of Engineering and research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The order “affirms the importance of privacy and public trust” but “lacks concrete mechanisms for how K–12 institutions, already overwhelmed with tech integration, can operationalize those protections,” Duane said. She added that schools “will need tools, frameworks, training and resources” to comply with laws like the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act while building digital trust.

Former federal officials warned that cuts to federal cybersecurity teams and key technology divisions – like the dismantling of the Office of Educational Technology – could lead to fragmented oversight as AI use expands and schools face growing data exfiltration risks.

“If it doesn’t come with any cybersecurity safeguards – which it doesn’t currently appear to – then schools could be in real trouble,” a former senior White House cybersecurity official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told ISMG.