Parents of Bend-La Pine Schools students, supported by local advocacy group Well Wired, have joined forces to express their collective concerns about the district’s implementation of educational technology, or “ed-tech.”
A statement, presented at the Tuesday, Feb. 10 school board meeting, asks the school board to “reduce screen time in schools and reevaluate the District’s increasing reliance on Big Tech – iPads, educational technology apps and Generative AI including AI chatbots – to deliver education to our children in Bend-La Pine public schools.”
The letter was signed by “more than 1,100 parents and community members representing more than 1,500 students, including parents from every grade and every school in the district,” organizers said.
The parents and Well Wired, which advocates in Central Oregon “to promote healthy screen use in schools,” outline several primary concerns with ed-tech.
Citing research from the Brookings Institute, MIT and neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath, the letter argues that ed-tech, when loosely restricted, can lead to a “negative impact on learning quality and academic outcomes,” especially when generative AI is involved. Also mentioned are “harms to wellbeing, safety and development” caused by ed-tech, including concerns about device misuse by students and potential “violations of data privacy and security.”
The Source spoke with parents who mentioned MagicSchool AI as a program of specific concern. This is the proprietary AI platform of MagicSchool Inc – founded in 2023, the Colorado-based company (registered in Delaware for tax purposes) has since attracted big investment from powerful purses like billion-dollar hedge fund Atreides Management.
MagicSchool Inc markets its software as a means to “amplify educator impact” and “unlock student potential,” using generative AI not just to reduce teachers’ workload, but to “strengthen student outcomes” by familiarizing kids with this advanced technology — technology that our society may be becoming reliant on to the point of cognitive detriment, studies indicate.
Bend-La Pine Schools has blocked external generative AI software, like ChatGPT, on district devices, its ed-tech executive director Karen Rush told the Source. “At the same time, we provide [MagicSchool] for teachers to use to teach students how to use AI with an understanding of both the benefits and pitfalls. Within this approved platform, our teachers control which AI tools students can access and when they can access them.”
Natalie Houston, a parent and mental health clinician, called MagicSchool AI (which comes built-in on student-issued devices) an example of “gimmicky, digitized stimuli meant to capture attention” that offers quick results and instant gratification, but ultimately fails at promoting long-term learning. “When teachers fall prey to using that technique, they are actually undermining attention spans,” she said.
Rush said that MagicSchool “operates as a closed system, meaning that AI-generated responses are based solely on content provided within the platform and are not connected to open internet searches,” stating that teachers oversee and set parameters for student use. “No students in grades K–2 have accessed the tools to date, and approximately 20% of students overall have generated AI responses within MagicSchool rooms,” she continued.
However, Houston and Well Wired co-founder Brooke Mues argued that teachers are not thoroughly instructed on responsible and ethical use of generative AI, let alone on how to effectively oversee it as a part of curriculum for dozens of students.
District resources viewed by the Source show that “Artificial Intelligence in BLS Classrooms” is a 90-minute required training program, which “highlights practical applications of AI for educators and students, including guidance on MagicSchool and AI image generation,” and “offers professional learning resources for staff interested in understanding and integrating AI in [Bend-LaPine] classrooms.”
AI may be the most topical concern, but ed-tech in general has parents sweating. “A lot of this rolled out during COVID; there simply wasn’t enough time to evaluate everything,” Mues added. Houston noted that, since 2020, iPads have been issued to students in every grade, including kindergartners: “Teachers now depend on this method of instruction as core curriculum.”
At a June 2024 school board meeting, a letter signed by over 135 Central Oregon pediatricians, counselors and behavioral health providers was presented by a child psychologist, recommending that district tighten its ed-tech policies by only issuing iPads to older students, setting limits on screen time and incorporating iPads into curriculum only when they improves or apply directly to the topic of learning, such as a coding class.
“Since then, to my knowledge, the district has failed to take any of these recommendations,” Mues said. “It appears there is now more use and more reliance on the iPads.”
In a statement to the Source, ed-tech director Rush said, “We agree with parents who believe that educational technology, including AI, must be used purposefully and responsibly. We have a clear duty to our students to teach both digital literacy – how to use technology to support learning, collaboration, and communication – and digital responsibility, which means using technology in ways that are safe, ethical, sustainable, and inclusive.”
She concluded, “The tools we integrate into classrooms are intended to support and enhance instruction that is thoughtfully designed and delivered by highly qualified teachers. The teacher-student relationship will always be the most important factor in children’s education, and technology will never replace that.”
Houston, speaking as both a parent and a mental health expert, asked that BLS, “form an advisory committee made of community professionals that can advise [district] policies and practices at a pace commensurate with the pace of change in the technology landscape.” She said she would also like to see the removal of “all generative AI products from student devices until an independent study evaluating risks and benefit is conducted.”
Though Governor Tina Kotek’s Executive Order 25-09 directs schools to ban usage of personal electronic devices during the school day, ed-tech products enjoy a largely unchallenged status in Oregon. The Eugene School District 4J also issues iPads, while Salem-Keizer Public Schools issues Chromebook laptops, which Google entered the ed-tech market with over a decade ago.
This article appears in the Source February 12, 2026.
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