Ten times more than textbooks. That’s what U.S. schools spent on laptops, tablets, and ed tech in general back in 2024—roughly $30 billion, by most estimates. The pitch was modernization. The outcome, by most measures, wasn’t that.
Neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath testified before the Senate that Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to score lower on standardized tests than their parents, marking a reversal of a century-long upward trend.
Horvath has been tracking how screens affect learning and cognition, and his data, collected from over 80 countries, show a consistent downward trend. The reversal emerged around 2010. That’s when devices became a classroom staple, and that’s also when the scores started sliding.
International student assessment data backs it up. Countries with higher classroom screen time tend to score lower. The relationship isn’t subtle; students using devices for leisure five or more hours a day scored 49 points lower than those with minimal exposure.
Hardware Without Pedagogy
The argument isn’t that schools should go back to overhead projectors. Most researchers and experts studying the impact of screens on learning aren’t making that case. What they’re pointing to is the gap between buying the hardware and actually knowing what to do with it.
A well-designed adaptive learning tool is genuinely useful. A cart full of tablets that kids use to watch videos while teachers cover paperwork is something else entirely. Schools have been doing a lot more of the second thing.
Seeking to steer the next wave of tech, unions entered the AI debate last year. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) announced a partnership with OpenAI in July 2025. Microsoft and Anthropic both got involved, with $23 million earmarked for AI training and curriculum.
AFT president Randi Weingarten separately announced a curriculum arrangement with the World Economic Forum. Education reform advocates were skeptical of both deals, questioning whether unions steering AI adoption in schools serve students or just their members.
Thirty billion in one year. A decade of similar spending behind it. A generation that reads and thinks worse than the last one. That’s roughly where things stand.
Sources: EducationWeek, Horvath’s Senate Testimony, PISA 2022, Heritage