Last week Google announced that Gemini, its AI chatbot, and Google Search will be off by default for K-12 student accounts until administrators turn them on, starting early next year. But the only Search Google offers schools has AI built in, so a district that says no to AI loses Search, too. Great. Leave them both off. Our kids don’t need either.
Google calls this “more choice, not less.” I call B.S. The message is that we have no real choice. Big Tech treats school districts like cash cows, and the herd is growing: global K-12 EdTech spending is projected to climb from $14.8 billion in 2022 to $132.4 billion by 2032. Former FTC chair Lina Khan put it plainly: “Google is using its search monopoly to coerce schools into adopting AI.” NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani agreed: “No corporation should have the power to dictate how we teach our children.” Public schools, he said, “exist to serve students, not to grow the profit margins of Big Tech.”
District 97 runs on Google Classroom and Workspace, now baked into the hardware (at least for middle schools). But this is the moment to move beyond Google. We have a couple of months to weigh options, but the answer cannot be caving in to Google’s pressure to insert itself between us and our kids while sucking up our tax dollars for record-breaking profits. Internal Google documents, made public in federal court, describe schools as a way to win customers early: “You get that loyalty early, and potentially for life.” Our children are not a customer pipeline.
Is leaving possible? Yes. Sí se puede. After Denmark’s data protection agency ruled in 2022 that Helsingør’s school use of Google Workspace broke EU privacy law, the city stopped using Google Workspace and Chromebooks in its classrooms. And there are alternatives: open-source tools are already used by schools around the world.
Political will is shifting. Voters are saying no to corruption, authoritarian politics, and tech oligarchy. Our school district can and should say no to Big Tech billionaire bullies, too.
Expect to hear more from D97 parents as Google’s deadline looms.
Sources for this letter can be found in the online version at oakpark.com/Opinion.
Annie Wilkinson
Oak Park
Sources
Goldstein, Dana, and Natasha Singer, “Google Will Turn Off Search for Schools That Reject AI.” The New York Times, Nov. 3, 2026. Republished by The Philadelphia Inquirer: https://www.inquirer.com/news/nation-world/google-ai-schools-student-software-chatbot-gemini-guided-learning-20261103.html
“Google Plans to Cut Off Search Access to Schools That Reject AI,” Democracy Now!, Nov. 5, 2026 https://www.democracynow.org/2026/11/5/headlines/google_plans_to_cut_off_search_access_to_schools_that_reject_ai
Merod, Anna, “Ed tech spending projected to balloon to $132.4B globally by 2032,” K-12 Dive, Oct. 25, 2023, https://www.k12dive.com/news/ed-tech-market-spending-132-billion/697752
“Google’s work in schools aims to create a pipeline of future users, internal documents say.” NBC News, Jan. 2026, https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/google-schools-aims-pipeline-future-users-internal-documents-rcna255175
Sawers, Paul, “Denmark bans Chromebooks and Google Workspace in schools over data transfer risks.” TechCrunch, July 18, 2022 https://techcrunch.com/2022/07/18/denmark-bans-chromebooks-and-google-workspace-in-schools-over-gdpr
Reed, Brad, “‘This Is Evil’: Critics Hammer Google Plan to Shut Off Search Access for Schools That Reject Its AI.” Common Dreams, Nov. 3, 2026. https://www.commondreams.org/news/google-ai-schools-policy