Did you know that nearly 1,900 public schools sit within a mile of an existing data center or a future facility that’s been approved? Shout out to the 74’s Linda Jacobson for her eye-opening coverage of how the tech industry’s voracious need for power is now butting up against the nation’s schools and the youngsters who attend them. Jacobson draws on forth-coming research from Brown University that found that—wait for it—attending school near a giant buzzing data center causes math scores to drop. (No word yet on whether tutoring from Sally the humanoid robot can boost said scores…)
I’ve spent much of this past summer interviewing people across the country about how opposition to data centers and tech overreach in its various guises is also a public education fight. The conversations have been illuminating and inspiring, shedding light on why the revolt against data centers is proving to be so politically potent, and how it is merging with the broader, parent-led backlash against ed tech. (Sorry Sally!)
Unlikely allies
Much has been made of the uniquely bipartisan nature of opposition to data centers. My favorite recent description comes via this terrific report from Wisconsin and Michigan by tech writer Jasmine Sun, who cites an organizer marveling at the wondrous solidarity of it all:
I’m watching MAGA people coming together with Democratic Socialists and Native American female leaders, healers, and water protectors, and they’re all using words that none of them really recognize, and no one’s getting offended.
And in parts of the country where the school culture wars have raged with particular ferocity, the fight against data centers is bringing together Moms for Liberty types with public school advocates. It turns out that nothing focuses the mind like a plan to locate a massive Microsoft data center right next to the school athletic fields. (Looking at you northwest Indiana!) As a local activist told me, one of the loudest voices against the project formerly led the charge to remove books from school libraries. Dousing the flames of the school culture wars may turn out to be yet another unintended side effect of the rush to hyper-scale AI infrastructure.
Meet the ‘Mom Populists’
Data center foes have been cleaning up at the polls, but there’s a subset of these candidates that hasn’t gotten enough attention. Call them the ‘mom populists,’ they’re campaigning on opposition to data centers AND fierce support of public schools. In Texas, Gina Hinajosa is mounting a serious challenge to Gov. Greg Abbott with the argument that Abbott is essentially selling off the state (and its schools) to the highest bidder. (Check out this brand new Hinojosa ad to see exactly what I’m talking about.) In Kansas, Cindy Holscher, a public education advocate dating back to the Brownback era, won the Democratic primary for governor after campaigning on a moratorium against data centers. But Francesca Hong may be the most interesting example. Long before she got tripped up by old Tweets and a love/hate relationship with Thanksgiving, she was doing something novel for a political campaign: listening to voters, which is how she ended up adopting the position on data centers that would propel her campaign. In a single, pithy slogan, she distilled ‘mom populism’ down to its essence: “tax the rich, fund our schools and stop AI data centers.”
The Voucher/Data Center Connection
If you’re in, say, rural Texas, the sudden proliferation of hyperscale data centers and their gas turbine friends feels awfully familiar. Just a couple of years ago, you got a controversial voucher program, ushered into policy thanks to a flood of out-of-state money. The anger over vouchers has not abated, by the way, and is a big part of what’s making Gina Hinojosoa such a threat to Gov. Greg Abbott. And if the latest news that 70 percent of vouchers went to kids already attending private school isn’t helping, neither are the visuals of Big Bend National Park being bulldozed.
In some states the overlap between vouchers and data centers shades comical. Byron Donalds, now the official GOP contender to replace Ron DeSantis, is both the Education Freedom candidate and the favorite pick of Big Data. But the dynamic is the same in all of the states where universal school vouchers and hyperscale data centers live side by side. Jasmine Sun’s description of the big money push to expand the latter sounds an awful lot like the big money push to expand the former.
It looks like Big Tech cheating the system, engaging in cronyism and bribery, throwing money bags at politicians and hoping the dollar signs substitute for a positive case.
All Aboard
Sun ultimately concludes from her conversations with data center opponents that the anti-democratic nature of back-room data center deals is what is giving the movement its explosive force. Which is why I’m thrilled to see that school boards are beginning to express their opposition to data centers. A bold prediction from yours truly: we are about to see a wave of school board activism on this front. What has been a trickle of boards so far expressing opposition to these facilities in communities like Mountain View, California and Palm Beach, Florida will expand exponentially as 1) data centers increasingly land near public schools and 2) the sort of bipartisan opposition I described above shows up at school boards. And while some will argue that this is yet another example of elected boards prioritizing politics over student achievement, they will be wrong. Whether we’re talking about health impacts on kids from air and noise pollution, or tax incentives that drain funds away from public schools, school districts can and should take a stand on this issue.
One Big Cause
My adopted home state of Massachusetts is mostly too compact and regulated for the sorts of massive data centers/gas turbine combos that are powering such resistance elsewhere. (My apologies to Westfield, where a $4 billion facility is in the works, and Lowell, where the largest data center in the state hulks over a residential neighborhood.) What we do have an abundance of are parents who are in revolt over AI and ed tech. This summer I had the pleasure of connecting with the folks behind Reconnect Malden, a community alliance that seeks not just limits on ed tech in schools but less dependence and more real-life connections for adults. (Note: listen for them on a forthcoming episode of my podcast, Have You Heard.) It turns out that a whole lot of people share this sentiment—another reason why the movement against data centers has taken off the way that it has. Community organizer Saul Levin summed this up in a recent episode of Tech Won’t Save Us better than I ever could.
I think the way that the tech industry has in a basically unregulated fashion done whatever they want with our daily lives and dependence on devices and and is now jamming AI into literally every application and every single thing we do is is really something that people know. And so they’re like, ‘you know what? Even if this data center doesn’t pollute our water, it still is upholding the use of tech to kill people abroad and to distract my kids in school at home. This is not worth some amount of money that you’re going to come offer me in a back deal back room deal.
I think the larger issue is understanding that agentic regenerative AI is largely building and controlling itself, OUTSIDE the control of the humans that built the infrastructure on which these intelligences are GROWN - - not built or designed. Technology has changed to such a great degree and so quickly, that to the average person it might as well be magic.
This article had lots of good points, but leaves out the ability of data centers to turn our nation into a complete surveillance system for American citizens. When paired with flock cameras and fitted with one missing element—it can now scan faces, license plates, and track ALL AMERICANS. That is an infringement on privacy. What will the government do when they know where you are at all times? Will they use that to protect you? Or against you?