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"Focus on learning with technology, not about technology."

Invest in teachers, not just hardware. Make sure new technology reaches every student. And conduct rigorous research into what actually works.

Sound like recommendations for the age of AI? They were written in 1997.

A White House panel—Sally Ride was a member—delivered them to President Clinton nearly three decades ago while wrestling with questions that remain familiar: Is technology improving learning, or simply adding more technology? And where is the evidence?

That history is part of the backdrop for AI Nation at Risk, Whiteboard Advisors' post-election policy summit. The title nods to the landmark 1983 report A Nation at Risk, which recommended a half-year of computer science for every high school graduate.

  • In 1983, computer science meant something closer to computer literacy; the report defined it as understanding the computer as an information, computation, and communication device.

Fourteen years later, the White House panel said that was only part of the question. The larger opportunity was learning with technology across every subject and understanding whether it actually worked.

  • The latter part has news attached to it this week. Education Week reports that the Institute of Education Sciences has announced its first research grant competition in more than 15 months, even as about $223 million in earlier funding expires after September 30 if it goes unspent.

With 36 governorships and control of Congress in play, 2026 is a mega election year with major implications for education policy.

  • On November 12, we'll gather senior leaders from across the sector—including U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education Kirsten Baesler—to consider how policymakers will respond to AI and the technology backlash, growing fiscal pressures, and a potential new era of higher education regulation and accountability.

Those same pressures run through this week's reading—from education's AI "gold rush" and classroom screen limits to teacher shortages, district budget crises, college closures, and questions about how we prepare students for what comes next.

The 1997 panel got the questions right. Nearly three decades later, we still owe some answers, and the technology is moving (much) faster.

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