Students in the nation's largest school district return to classrooms next week.
Page A12From§Eachthe milkman edition — 2 September 2026
New York bans AI in schools as California judge lets schools keep biological males on girls’ teams
As it ran on the front
In New York, AI is out for the school year—computers are banned from classrooms through middle school. Meanwhile, California keeps the doors open, letting schools decide who plays on which team. The headlines say education, but the policy fights are about who draws the lines and who gets to erase them.
It’s not about learning, it’s about control. The school board in one state says technology is too risky for young minds, and the bench in another says the sports rulebook is flexible enough for everyone. The decisions are made in quiet offices, but the results show up in the classroom. One state locks down the curriculum, another unlocks the locker room. The parents watch the news and try to guess which rules will survive the next semester.…
…(cont) The stakes are plain: the boundaries shift, but the kids stay in the middle. Education is the pretext, but the fight is over who gets to set the limits. The policies change, the classroom stays the same. The chalkboard is erased, the roster is rewritten, and the only constant is the debate.
“One state bans computers for children, another keeps the rulebook open for who joins which team. The school decisions aren’t about education anymore, they’re about who gets to set the boundaries. The policies change, the stakes stay in your kid’s classroom.”
“States are just responding to local concerns. New York’s AI ban is about safety, California’s sports policy is about inclusion. Did I say boundaries? That’s not a limitation, it’s flexibility. Schools make the rules, and parents should be grateful for the progress.”
The receipts
For the Trump administration, the central battle over girls’ sports is still unresolved.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.