In a political climate where Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on whether water is wet, Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Mike Rounds (R-SD) have found common ground: kids should understand AI before it understands them.
The LIFT AI Act (Literacy in Future Technologies Artificial Intelligence Act), introduced April 28, is the first bipartisan Senate bill specifically targeting K-12 AI literacy with NSF grant funding. It’s a companion to House bills H.R.5584 (Kean/Amo) that have been working through committee since last year. And here’s the part that should make you pay attention: it’s endorsed by both the American Federation of Teachers and Google. When the teachers union and the tech giant are on the same page, the Overton window has officially moved.
What the Bill Actually Does
The LIFT AI Act directs the National Science Foundation to award competitive grants to universities and nonprofits for three things:
- Developing K-12 AI literacy curricula — not just “how to use ChatGPT,” but understanding how AI works, its limitations, ethical implications, and when to trust it (and when not to)
- Training educators — courses, mentoring, and best practices for teachers, principals, and school leaders who are currently expected to teach AI literacy with zero preparation
- Building hands-on learning tools — so students learn by doing, not by watching a PowerPoint about “the future of work”
The bill emphasizes equitable access, critical thinking, and responsible use. It does not mandate a national curriculum — it creates the resources and lets states and districts decide how to use them.
Notably, the bill has no specific funding appropriation. It leverages existing NSF programs. That’s both a strength (it can move faster through appropriations) and a weakness (how much can you really do with existing funding?).
Why This Bill, Why Now
Two words: workforce disruption.
Sen. Rounds cited the Trump administration’s National Policy Framework for AI, which explicitly calls for an AI-ready workforce. Sen. Schiff pointed to the growing adoption of AI across every industry. They’re both right — and they’re both reacting to the same uncomfortable truth that we’ve been tracking: the US has 31 states with 134+ AI education bills in play, but no national coordination.
The LIFT AI Act sits alongside the Department of Education’s April 13 supplemental priority on AI in education — which we covered — and Trump’s April 2025 executive order on AI education. But where the ED priority is a grant preference (soft power through funding signals), and the EO is executive branch direction, the LIFT AI Act is legislation. It would create a permanent statutory basis for AI literacy funding, not just a regulation that the next administration can reverse.
The Endorsements Tell the Story
The bill’s endorsement list reads like a who’s who of “people who actually have to deal with this”:
- American Federation of Teachers — representing 1.7 million educators who are already using AI in classrooms without training or guidelines
- Google — which sells AI tools to schools and wants a literate customer base
- OpenAI — which makes ChatGPT, the tool most students are already using (supervised or not)
- Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) — the tech industry’s DC lobby
- Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) — which represents edtech vendors
When the teachers union and the AI companies both say “yes, please,” you’re looking at something that might actually pass.
The Problems
Let’s be honest about what’s missing:
No dedicated funding. Leveraging existing NSF programs is fine, but NSF is already oversubscribed. Without a specific appropriation, the grants will be small and slow. China is spending billions on mandatory AI education from age 6. The US is repurposing existing grant money. The gap is not subtle.
No mandates. The bill creates resources, not requirements. States and districts can ignore it entirely. That’s politically smart — mandates are radioactive in American education policy — but it means the bill’s impact depends entirely on voluntary adoption.
No accountability. There’s no mechanism to measure whether the funded programs actually improve AI literacy. We’ll fund curricula and tools without knowing if they work.
No age-appropriate standards. The bill says “AI literacy for K-12” but doesn’t define what a first-grader should know versus a senior. We’ve seen this gap before — 250 experts called for a moratorium on AI in schools until proper safeguards exist. This bill doesn’t address those concerns.
The Bigger Picture: Federal vs. State vs. Nowhere
The LIFT AI Act is the Senate’s answer to a question that 31 states have already answered differently. It represents the federal government’s ongoing struggle to be relevant in AI education:
- States like North Carolina (which just passed the Safe and Responsible AI in Schools Act) are legislating directly
- The federal Department of Education is using soft-power grant preferences
- Congress is creating voluntary funding programs
Nobody is setting national standards. Nobody is requiring anything. And meanwhile, China just mandated AI education from age 6 with minimum hours and teacher certification requirements.
The LIFT AI Act is a good bill. It’s bipartisan. It’s practical. It has broad support. It’s also a symptom of the American approach to AI education: fund the option to do something, hope someone takes you up on it, and call it progress.
What This Means for New Zealand
New Zealand has no equivalent legislation. No AI literacy definition in policy. No dedicated funding pathway for AI in schools. No bipartisan agreement on anything technology-related, as far as I can tell.
The LIFT AI Act, even with its gaps, creates something NZ doesn’t have: a federal vocabulary for talking about AI literacy, a funding mechanism, and a bipartisan signal that this matters. If the US — with all its political dysfunction — can get Democrats and Republicans to agree on AI education, NZ has no excuse for inaction.
SOURCES
- Sen. Adam Schiff Press Release: Sens. Schiff, Rounds Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Bolster Artificial Intelligence Literacy for Students
- Congress.gov: H.R.5584 — LIFT AI Act
- SIIA: SIIA Supports the LIFT AI Act
