Across the country, schools are struggling to figure out what to do about artificial intelligence — especially platforms like ChatGPT. Teachers use generative AI to build curricula, create lesson plans, and develop assessments. Students are using the same tools to complete homework, review concepts, and draft assignments. National surveys show concerns about AI’s effects on critical thinking, memory, and biased representations of marginalized communities. Yet Black teens and educators in minority-serving schools report using generative AI more than their peers.
Critics argue AI stunts learning or creates shortcuts. But that narrative misses the structural conditions driving its use. Black students and their educators are not turning to AI to cut corners — they are using it to compensate for an education system that has long failed to provide the support they need to succeed. Across classrooms we coached, the pattern was clear: talented teachers were working in systems that simply didn’t provide enough time, resources, or instructional support, and students bore the brunt of these issues.
Why Black Students and Teachers Are Turning to AI
According to the 2025 Voices of Gen Z Study, Study, 56% of middle and high school students report they are thriving, and Black Gen Zers are even more likely to say so. But thriving doesn’t mean they’re being supported. In many predominantly Black schools, both students and teachers are using AI to fill gaps created by systemic underinvestment. Underfunded schools are often expected to meet the same academic expectations with fewer resources, fewer experienced educators, and far less instructional support. AI fills the gap.
The Load Teachers Carry
Education researchers define cognitive load as the mental effort required to manage tasks. For teachers, that load is enormous. They design curriculum, assess learning, manage behavior, handle discipline documentation, and communicate with caregivers and administrators — amounting to more than a thousand decisions daily.
As former teacher coaches, we saw this cognitive load up close across dozens of classrooms. Many of the teachers we supported were early in their careers and responsible for building curriculum from scratch while also learning classroom management, assessment design, and state standards. The pressure wasn’t a reflection of poor teaching — it was the reality of working in schools expected to do more with far fewer resources.
Underfunded Schools Lack the Support Teachers Need
In well-funded districts, novice teachers receive curriculum materials, coaching, and mentorship. In underfunded schools that serve predominantly Black students, those supports are often missing. These schools have higher percentages of novice teachers. In eight states, 30 percent or more of Black students attend schools where inexperienced teachers make up a large share of the faculty and lack the mentorship and instructional support needed to effectively teach.
Class size compounds the problem. Black students are 1.8 times more likely than white students to be in overcrowded classrooms. We’ve taught in classrooms where nearly half the students required individualized support — some reading years below grade level, others managing behavioral plans and language barriers. Planning a single lesson often meant creating three or four versions of the same material just to meet the range of needs in the room. That could mean one assignment for advanced readers, another with scaffolding for struggling students, and a third adapted for students receiving special education services.
Why Students Are Turning to AI to Catch Up
If tools like ChatGPT had existed earlier in our teaching careers, many educators — including us — would have welcomed the help with differentiating lesson plans and addressing misconceptions. During our years in the classroom, our peers were deeply committed to their students but lacked the planning time, curriculum resources, or veteran colleagues that help new teachers grow. This resulted in compounding stress that contributes to significant losses in the teacher pipeline. In fact, 70% of teachers burn out and leave within their first four years.
The systemic challenges teachers face don’t stay in the staff room — they ripple directly into classrooms, shaping what students experience every day. Black students are not primarily using ChatGPT to bypass learning — they are using it to get help they otherwise cannot access. After COVID-19, chronic absenteeism surged. Nearly 40% of Black public school students were chronically absent in 2022–23, nearly double pre-pandemic levels. Students who miss weeks of instruction often return to classrooms already moving ahead, forcing them to find ways to catch up independently.
AI Cannot Replace Educational Equity
The digital divide — the unequal access to technology, reliable internet, and devices — persists. Many Black families still lack stable internet, reliable devices, or quiet spaces for learning. Students who miss large chunks of instruction are increasingly turning to free AI tools as tutors to fill those gaps. Since tutoring is financially infeasible, they ask platforms to explain algebra steps, summarize difficult readings, or walk through science concepts they missed in class.
Unless these inequities are addressed, AI alone will be a bandage on a much deeper wound. Technology cannot replace equitable funding, smaller class sizes, experienced educators, and meaningful instructional support. Students themselves understand what’s at stake: Students themselves understand what’s at stake: 77% of Gen Z says they believe their future is bright. That optimism deserves an education system capable of supporting it.
When we move the conversation from blame to support, we can invest in the conditions Black students and their educators need to thrive — where technology can serve as a tool for learning, but never as a substitute for genuine educational equity.
Julienne Louis-Anderson is a former educator and coach who writes about the intersection of culture and politics with education and human development. She is also a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project in partnership with the National Black Child Development Institute.
Kamye Hugley is a former educator and nonprofit leader who has spent her career helping teachers bridge the gap between literacy theory and classroom practice. She is also a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project in partnership with the National Black Child Development Institute.