This ~30-minute episode of The New York Times podcast The Daily examines how artificial intelligence (AI) reshaped American classrooms during the 2025–26 school year. The episode discusses the growing debate over AI's role in education, driven by parental backlash, cheating concerns, aggressive tech-company marketing, and a federal policy vacuum left by a vague White House executive order. The reporting shows that district rollouts have been chaotic, contrasting Miami-Dade's cautious, year-long testing with Los Angeles's rushed chatbot deal that collapsed amid fraud charges. The episode includes studies, such as a major Brookings review, that conclude the risks of generative AI in children's education currently outweigh its benefits. It also highlights a grassroots teacher movement reframing “AI literacy” as “AI civics,” teaching students to engage critically with AI rather than become passive users who surrender their thinking. This episode may help preparation faculty examine differing perspectives on AI use in schools and consider how educators and students might engage with these tools.