Teachers Union Chief Weingarten Calls for Limits on AI and Screen Time
Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.8 million-member American Federation of Teachers (AFT), called on Wednesday for sweeping restrictions on technology in classrooms, including a ban on screens for students below third grade, a prohibition on student-facing artificial intelligence in elementary schools, and a ban on “social companion” chatbots for children under 16. Delivering a speech titled “Devices Down, Eyes Up, Hands On” at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Weingarten positioned herself and her union as prominent new allies to a growing bipartisan parent-led movement to scale back screen time in public schools, as NBC News reported.
Context and Background
The announcement comes just one week after the Trump administration’s surgeon general’s office issued an advisory warning against excessive screen time for children. That advisory, released on May 20, recommended that children aged 6 to 18 receive no more than two hours of screen time daily, that children under 6 receive less than one hour, and that children under 18 months receive zero screen time. It also urged schools to buy more physical textbooks, prioritize pen-and-paper curricula, and ban student cellphones, according to USA Today.
The advisory was issued without a confirmed surgeon general — Trump’s current nominee, Dr. Nicole Saphier, awaits confirmation, and two previous nominees failed to be confirmed. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote in the advisory’s foreword that “social media is only one aspect of this ongoing screen time problem” and that “the evidence of a range of risks to children’s overall mental and physical health is mounting,” as The Guardian reported.
Key Proposals
Weingarten’s proposals are wide-ranging. She called for banning all screen use for students below third grade — including online tests — unless there is a “compelling reason” such as disability accommodations. She also proposed prohibiting all “student-facing” artificial intelligence, such as digital tutors, in elementary schools, and banning “companion chatbots” — AI programs that simulate human relationships — for students under age 16. For secondary students, Weingarten said AI-based tools should only be used under teacher supervision, according to Education Week.
“Students need their teachers — real human beings, not robots and not chatbots,” Weingarten said in her speech. “I am not calling for an AI ban or a Chromebook bonfire. What I am calling for is getting the balance right to harness the benefits of technology while mitigating the harms.”
Weingarten also called for establishing an independent research consortium to study the effects of AI and screens on student learning, and the AFT proposed a federal tax on major technology companies to fund mitigation of AI-related job disruption. “Artificial intelligence is accelerating the steepest upward transfer of wealth in modern history,” she said. “Tech kingpins and corporations can afford to pay a fair tech tax; workers, communities and the earth can’t afford for them not to.”
Political Dynamics
The speech revealed a complex political landscape. Weingarten, a prominent Democratic-aligned labor leader, criticized the Trump administration for dismantling the Education Department and withholding nearly $300 million in education research funding. The White House pushed back sharply. Davis Ingle, a White House spokesman, said Weingarten “is the last person who should be weighing in about what is best for American students” due to the AFT’s push for safety measures before schools reopened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Trump Administration is finally putting American students and families first,” Ingle said in a statement.
AFT’s Dual Relationship with AI
The proposals represent a notable shift for the AFT. Just last summer, the union partnered with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Microsoft to create a five-year, $23 million National Academy for AI Instruction to train teachers. The Academy is developing “gold standards” in safety, privacy, and data security for companies wanting to work in K-12 schools. However, Weingarten now says she views many big technology companies as “playing a really negative role in terms of trying to push more tech into schools.”
Leah Van Dassor, president of the St. Paul, Minn., teachers’ union and an AFT affiliate, captured the tension: “There’s more to [AI] than just what the tools are. It’s more about, what are the safeguards and where is this leading? Sure, if [AI] is going to make my job faster and easier, awesome — but only as long as people are still making the deep decisions that need to be made through their critical thinking.”
A Growing Movement
At least 38 states have restricted or banned mobile phones in schools, and some states have begun limiting school-issued devices for the youngest students. Internationally, Sweden has pushed schools to return to printed textbooks, Madrid limits computer and tablet use to two hours per week, and China requires “screen-free” time in schools. However, other education trade groups — representing administrators, librarians, and school technology staff — have resisted hard limits, arguing that pulling back on ed-tech would leave students “less prepared for both today’s and tomorrow’s demands.”
What’s Next
Weingarten’s proposals are likely to intensify the national debate over technology in classrooms. With both the teachers’ union and the Trump administration’s own health officials now warning about excessive screen time — albeit from different political perspectives — the pressure on school districts to act is mounting. Key questions remain: whether the AFT can reconcile its partnership with AI companies with its call for restrictions, whether the proposed “Big Tech tax” gains legislative traction, and how states balancing AI literacy requirements with screen time limits will navigate these competing priorities.