In response to the growing use of AI in education, Texas voters are clear: safety must come first.
This finding should not surprise given voters’ broader sentiment with AI in previous Texas 2036 voter polls. In November 2024, when asked how state government should approach AI in the context of improving government efficiency and services, the most common answer was restraint. Nearly half, or 47%, of Texas voters said the state should restrict it due to safety and data privacy concerns, against 24% who wanted it developed to make state government services more efficient and provide better service.
Texas voters did provide guidance specifically on the use of AI in education when, in our October 2025 voter poll, they identified specific uses that they would support. A total of 68% supported AI use to provide students personalized support to catch up or advance in their learning. Another 67% supported the provision of individually tailored college and career guidance, and 56% supported its use to assist teachers with grading.
This August, in our 10th poll, we wanted to better understand voters’ sentiment regarding broader conditions surrounding AI use in education, and we learned that they highly value safety and privacy if AI will be used.
Nearly thirty points separate the top of that list from the bottom. This spread is key. Texans are not expressing one undifferentiated worry about AI in schools. They are prioritizing protection first, followed by performance.
When looking more closely, we find additional insights.
First, this is not a partisan sentiment.
On four of the five items, Republicans and Democrats land within three points of each other — 67% and 69% on teacher review, 72% and 73% on teaching responsible use, 75% and 79% on safety standards. Even the widest gap in the battery, on student data privacy, is only 7 percentage points, and both Republicans and Democrats clear 80%. That kind of agreement is rare, and it is specific to AI in schools.
Second, privacy is the floor, not just the top line.
Across every subgroup in the crosstabs with a usable base — party, age, education, income, race, region, whether the respondent has school-age children at home — support for protecting student data never falls below 80%. Nothing else in the battery holds that steady. Texans can agree on one priority about AI in schools: schools must protect students’ privacy and data.
Third, the battery can work in tandem.
Although at varying degrees, every item polled had support from a majority of Texans, including the item closest to learning. This means that schools must address every item in some manner. It also means prioritizing those items drawing the highest levels of support. In practice, this can be viewed as the conditions that Texas voters expect to be met if AI will be used in a classroom — that students’ data and privacy are protected, that tools meet established standards, that students are taught how to engage with AI responsibly and critically, that there is a teacher in the loop, and that AI use must be effective.
The 10th Texas Voter Poll was conducted Aug. 22–26, 2026, by Baselice & Associates for Texas 2036, consisting of 1,369 completed interviews with registered Texas voters. Results weighted to represent registered Texas voters statewide with an effective sample size after weighting of 1,001. Margin of sampling error is ±3.1 percentage points.
