GUEST EDITORIAL: Anavitarte: Back to School and Back to What Matters

By: Sen. Jason Anavitarte (R-Dallas)

This month, across Georgia, parents are packing lunches and taking the obligatory first-day photo. Some are walking their nervous kindergartner into a classroom for the first time. Others are handing the car keys to their teenager and wondering how the years went by so quickly. Thousands more are loading up cars and sending their son or daughter off to college, perhaps as the first person in their family to ever take that step. I'm especially proud to say I've joined those ranks, having just waved goodbye to my own daughter as she starts her college journey in Athens this fall.

Nearly every parent this month is asking some version of the same question: Will my child be ready for the life ahead of them?

This question weighs heavily on me, both as a father and as Senate Majority Leader, because education is about far more than test scores or another line in the state budget. It is about whether a child learns to read with confidence, whether parents remain central to the decisions affecting their children, and whether a young person has a realistic path to opportunity after high school.

Literacy is one of the most foundational responsibilities of our state's education system. A student who struggles to read will have a harder time understanding a math problem, following a science lesson or, eventually, filling out a job application. No amount of spending around the edges can compensate for failing a child at that foundation. For that reason, we enacted the Early Literacy Act of 2026.

The law establishes school-based literacy coaches for public schools serving kindergarten through third grade. These coaches are then required to spend at least 70 percent of the school day working directly in classrooms with teachers and students. They will model effective instruction, analyze student progress, and provide direct support to individual students and small groups. Teachers will also receive training rooted in the science of reading, including topics like phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension. We've chosen to direct resources toward our kids, not into the ether of bureaucracy.

Giving children the right tools to learn is only part of our responsibility. We also have to pay attention to the environment in which they are growing up. For today's students, their learning environment does not exist in isolation from the digital world. Technology follows them from the classroom to the dinner table and shapes how they understand the world around them.

That reality demands a balance. Technology can be an extraordinary tool, and our state should continue to embrace innovation. At the same time, childhood should not become collateral damage in the race to develop the next great technology, nor should parents be expected to surrender their role simply because innovation is outpacing legislation we currently have in place to govern it.

That concern guided legislation I authored this year addressing artificial intelligence companion chatbots, one of the newest challenges facing families across our state. Unlike basic search engines or educational programs, these platforms are designed to sustain ongoing, highly personalized conversations. They can remember previous interactions, respond to emotional cues and engage users on deeply personal subjects. For an adult, that may simply be another form of technology, but for a child still learning to decipher between artificial and authentic conversations, the risks are far more serious.

Senate Bill 540 establishes clear boundaries for those interactions. AI companion chatbots must disclose that the user is speaking with artificial intelligence rather than another person. Platforms serving minors must now take reasonable steps to prevent simulated romantic or sexual relationships, hiding conversations from parents, social isolation, emotional manipulation, and statements promoting self-harm.

A machine should never tell a child to keep secrets from a parent. Software should not be designed to make a young person emotionally dependent on it. An artificial companion should not simulate or encourage a romantic relationship with a minor, and under no circumstances should technology encourage a child to harm himself or herself.

Anyone who calls those protections "anti-technology" should explain why protecting a tech company's business model matters more than protecting a child. Innovation deserves our support, but never our blind allegiance.

Conservatives have always understood that freedom and responsibility go hand in hand. Companies should be free to develop innovative products, and families should be free to decide how technology fits into their homes and their children's lives. But freedom does not mean freedom from responsibility. When a company creates a product capable of fostering an emotional relationship with a child, it also assumes an obligation to implement meaningful guardrails. Our responsibility in the General Assembly is to defend your ability to parent, particularly when powerful institutions or companies make decisions that affect your children.

Children deserve the space and freedom they need to grow up, and parents should be the ones who guide them in deciding what that space and freedom look like. Students should leave our schools able to read, think critically and take responsibility for their own futures. Technology ought to serve young people rather than manipulate them. A student's hard work should still open doors regardless of a student's ZIP code or family income. That is the education agenda Senate Republicans fought for this year.

Years from now, very few parents will remember the bill numbers debated under the Gold Dome. They will remember their child standing on the front porch for that first-day-of-school picture, backpack on and ready for the year ahead. We must make sure that when that child eventually walks out of a Georgia classroom for the last time, he or she is prepared to walk confidently into whatever comes next.

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Sen. Jason Anavitarte serves as Senate Majority Leader. He represents the 31^st Senate District, which includes Polk County and a portion of Paulding County. He may be reached by phone at (404) 656-0085 or by email at [email protected].

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