OPINION:
Commencement ceremonies traditionally inspire hope and excitement about the future — from both the graduates and the older generations sending the younger ones out into the world.
Sadly, we saw the opposite this spring as the class of 2026 rejected progress and innovation by booing speakers’ mentions of artificial intelligence.
Young Americans entering the most technologically competitive workforce in human history hear “artificial intelligence” and respond with fear and resentment rather than ambition and optimism.
That is a shame, and it indicates a bleak future for those who should see opportunity.
Those reactions are the direct product of a higher education system that has been teaching students for years that technology is something done to them rather than a tool they can use to build prosperous, meaningful lives.
The impact of ideological capture in academia cannot be denied. For four years, many of these graduates sat in classrooms where professors warned that AI and “Big Tech” would destroy their futures. They were taught that technological advancement is inherently exploitative, innovation is threatening and success in America’s economy is somehow morally suspect.
Then, after years of hearing that message, they walked across the commencement stage and were suddenly told to embrace AI to survive in the workforce. Of course they are angry. They have been set up to fail.
Universities are actively discouraging students from learning how to use AI while acknowledging that graduates are unprepared for the modern economy. Forty-two percent of colleges discourage AI use. Eleven percent ban it outright.
Yet most faculty also acknowledge that their students are not prepared to use AI tools in the workplace, even as employers increasingly demand those skills. Scholars’ wings have been clipped before they have even left the nest.
Parents are spending as much as $300,000 on degrees that often leave their children less employable than they were before they enrolled. This fact should outrage every American family.
Nearly half of college faculty say AI will hurt students’ careers. Most say it will worsen learning outcomes. Meanwhile, businesses across the country are hiring for AI fluency.
The disconnect is not just between students and today’s technology; it is also between an ideological faculty and the realities of our global economy.
These professors are not protecting their students. They are protecting an obsolete worldview that is rapidly collapsing.
The Trump administration recognized this reality when President Trump signed the executive order Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth. The order correctly understands that AI education must begin in K-12 classrooms so American students can lead the future and America can lead in the global AI race.
“America First” means ensuring that American children become the world’s most AI-capable workforce.
While our universities teach fear, China is teaching mastery.
At Optima Academy Online, we are already proving there is a better way. We use carefully controlled small language models and curated datasets to safely integrate AI into education. Our students can interview 3D AI avatars of Rosa Parks, Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla using answers drawn directly from these figures’ writings and historical records. We are building mastery-based learning environments where AI instructors make education more interactive, engaging and personalized.
Institutions such as Alpha School are using AI tutoring systems to help students achieve elite academic outcomes in dramatically less time. Enrollment is exploding because parents recognize what many universities refuse to acknowledge: AI will transform learning, not replace it. Perhaps that is what higher education fears most.
If students can become AI-fluent in months for a fraction of the cost, what exactly justifies paying $80,000 a year for a traditional university experience increasingly disconnected from workforce reality?
AI represents the single greatest disruption to the higher education cartel in generations. That is why so many institutions are teaching students that it is evil.
However, not everyone is making that mistake. Unlike its university counterparts, Miami Dade College is embracing AI education and preparing students for six-figure careers through its Applied Artificial Intelligence programs while integrating AI readiness across all academic disciplines.
A Florida community college is training the workforce of the future while elite universities punish students for opening ChatGPT.
American academia stands at a crossroads. We can either prepare our children to lead the AI revolution, or we can allow ideological legacy institutions to convince another generation that innovation is the enemy.
The students booing AI at graduation are a critical warning sign. America’s higher education system must stop fearing the future and instead commit to preparing students for it.
• Erika Donalds is the founder of the Education Freedom Foundation and Optima Academy Online, the world’s first virtual reality school and accredited K-12 curriculum.
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