With early voting approaching and four of Baltimore County’s seven elected school board seats up for grabs, candidates are sharply divided over a question with no easy answer: should artificial intelligence have any place in classrooms serving 108,000 students? Some say it does not belong in schools at all. Others say ignoring it would leave kids unprepared for the world they are entering.
Candidates Stake Out Opposing Camps
Lisa Mack, a former English instructor at the Community College of Baltimore County, is among the most skeptical. According to The Baltimore Banner, Mack said AI does not belong in school, arguing students would benefit more from traditional research methods than from leaning on chatbots. She also said AI fails to teach independent thought and can limit social interaction in the classroom.
Maggie Litz Domanowski takes a related but distinct position: she is not opposed to the technology existing, but she wants it kept away from student work. The Banner reports she said children need to learn to read books and write without AI, and that the tool should be restricted from writing papers or answering math problems for them. Still, Domanowski acknowledged AI is not going away and can be useful in other contexts. Speaking separately to GovTech, she summed up her philosophy bluntly: “We shouldn’t be learning from AI. We should be learning about AI.”
Rod McMillion lands on the opposite end of the spectrum. Per the Banner's reporting, he said Baltimore County students need exposure to AI and should not be kept ignorant of it, arguing that library media specialists are well-positioned to teach responsible use. McMillion also said there should be consequences for students who misuse AI irresponsibly, including cheating on assignments — a tension between embracing the tool and policing its abuse.
A Middle Path, and Several Open Minds
Stacy McNish occupies something of a middle ground. She said AI can be abused and misused but is not inherently evil, and that it could be used productively in schools if educators are the ones deciding when it enters the classroom, according to the same Banner report. McNish floated a specific exercise: have students draft an essay themselves, then try to recreate it by prompting a large language model, an assignment she said could sharpen critical thinking rather than replace it.
Candice Logan-Washington argued students should be taught to use AI responsibly, ethically and safely so it strengthens learning rather than substituting for thought. She said decisions about AI use should weigh a student's age and developmental needs alongside the district's actual purpose for deploying the tool, and that it should never replace reading, hands-on learning or human interaction. Speaking to GovTech, she compared the technology to something far more familiar: technology is a tool, “just like a pencil, and a pencil can be dangerous if not used properly.”
Kelli Slattery McClelland has called artificial intelligence the single most urgent issue facing Baltimore County Public Schools, according to WBFF Fox Baltimore. “We must have an AI policy. We must have clear guidance for how tech should be used in our classrooms,” she said, adding that she would push to establish that guidance if elected. Per the Banner, McClelland said AI use in county schools should be minimized until a formal district policy exists, and that she would want evidence AI actually improves student outcomes before supporting a policy that also protects student data.
Darren M. Badillo said he needs more research into how other school systems are using AI before staking out a firm position, though he acknowledged the technology could have benefits, the Banner reports. If elected, he said he would push for less screen time, more play, and more pencil-and-paper writing. Christina Pumphrey, who did not respond to the Banner's interview request, has separately told GovTech that the district should aim for as little screen use as possible among its youngest learners.
State Guidance Leaves the Hard Calls to Local Districts
The debate is playing out against a backdrop in which state law requires school systems to establish their own guardrails around AI, per the Banner's reporting, while Maryland's broader framework stops short of settling the fight itself. Under the Maryland State Department of Education's guidance, local education agencies retain authority to select their own tools and design their own implementation strategies, and the framework does not approve or prohibit any specific technology. It does say artificial intelligence should enhance, not replace, educators, counselors and school leaders, and that students in grades 2 through 12 are expected to receive annual AI literacy instruction. Any AI-supported decision affecting students requires human review, and the guidance notes it does not itself create binding requirements for districts, which must still weigh FERPA, COPPA, ADA and the Maryland Student Data Privacy Act when AI systems touch student information.
Some research suggests the stakes of getting the design wrong are real. A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that students given unrestricted access to a GPT-4 interface scored 48% better on practice problems but performed 17% worse on a later exam taken without AI access, compared with students who had no generative AI at all.
What Other Maryland Districts Are Doing
Frederick County Public Schools banned AI for all students, according to the Baltimore Sun.
Back in Baltimore County, the school board itself is actively debating how to respond to public calls to limit or ban AI in classrooms, even as some schools already use the technology in targeted ways — at Westowne Elementary in Catonsville, students practice reading with Amira, an AI-powered instruction program, the Banner reports. Library media specialists across the county are already required to teach two additional classes on top of their regular duties, a workload that could grow if AI literacy becomes a bigger part of the curriculum.
