Tech skepticism grows among CMS parents as hundreds join petition

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has spent nearly a decade and millions of dollars incorporating technology into the school day. But now parents are pushing back.

CMS wants $6 million from Mecklenburg County in its 2026-27 budget proposal for refreshing student devices. It’s not the first request of that kind: CMS has budgeted around $16 million to $20 million in county funding to update student devices over four years, beginning in 2024.

Under former Superintendent Clayton Wilcox, CMS began rolling out a one-to-one device program in 2018, meaning every student would eventually have their own Chromebook to take to and from school each day.

That became essential during the COVID-19 pandemic, as instruction moved online. By the 2021-2022 school year, 96% of U.S. public schools reported giving digital devices to students who needed them, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

But now parents – and one county commissioner – are questioning the role technology plays in learning.

“I recognize that the world is different than when I graduated high school, but I think that we should consider spending less money on tech,” Mecklenburg County Commissioner Leigh Altman told CMS officials at a May 13 budget meeting.

Altman cited concerns about student mental health and suggested students could use dedicated computer labs rather than having their own devices. Instead, Altman said the district could “consider using these tens of millions of dollars for other things that are desperately needed in the system.”

“We’re now 6 years on from the pandemic, and the devices have stayed,” Ross Glynn, a parent to two kids at Collinswood Language Academy in south Charlotte, told The Charlotte Observer. “This seems like a really good time to reassess that dynamic.”

Some parents created a petition for “balanced, intentional technology use in CMS,” including a clear way for families to opt out of some technology-based instruction. It launched April 28 and had 893 signatures as of Monday morning.

What many parents want, Glynn said, is simply more clarity about how technology is used in CMS classrooms and how it affects learning and child development.

“I think we need to be better educated on how this particular model works so we can draw conclusions,” Glynn said. “It’s very hard as a parent to truly know what the academic day looks like, and I think that’s my initial goal is to shine a light on how things work so we can form an opinion and engage as partners.”

Technology and transparency

CMS contracts with an edtech company called Curriculum Associates for use of a platform called i-Ready. It’s designed to identify areas where students need help and give them personalized lessons and activities to complete.

Students use it for about 90 minutes per week. This year’s CMS contract with Curriculum Associates totals around $4.6 million and expires June 30, according to public records.

The advantage of i-Ready is it allows teachers to see individualized student data and who needs extra math or reading help.

But some parents and students at Sedgefield Montessori worry computer-based learning conflicts with the philosophy of Montessori education, which centers on hands-on, student-led exploration.

“As Montessori families, we have always kind of been low-tech,” Allie Kaul, a parent at Sedgefield Montessori in south Charlotte told The Observer. “Most recently, the i-Ready program has really been eye-opening for how much tech is being pushed across the district, and it feels really problematic.”

Kaul said a student at Sedgefield also launched a petition for CMS to remove i-Ready from Montessori schools.

“It’s time that they are not doing the things that I send them to specifically a Montessori program to do, which are things like hands-on education, time outside, time doing practical life skills, doing projects with other kids,” Kaul said. “It’s just one kid with one tablet.”

Kaul shares some of Glynn’s frustrations about how technology is used in the classroom and what agency families have. When she’s asked if parents can opt out of certain types of technology use, answers vary, and there hasn’t been a clear process for how to do so.

CMS has not responded to The Charlotte Observer’s questions about technology use in the district and its response to parent concerns communicated in the April 28 petition.

Glynn said he is skeptical of heavy screen usage among young learners, but he mostly wants more information from the district about how tech is used and its impacts.

“Sometimes, if you don’t know what’s happening on a day-to-day basis, you sub in the anecdotal evidence,” Glynn said. “More openness about how the current one-to-one model is going may ameliorate some of my concerns.”

Trends in tech

CMS wouldn’t be alone if it moved to put limits on technology in the classroom: school districts around the country have begun doing so in recent years.

More than 30 states, including North Carolina, enacted laws within the last five years that require school districts to develop policies around cellphone use in school. CMS, for example, requires students to keep phones off and put away during instructional time.

In Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest in the country, board members unanimously approved a resolution in late April to scale back screen use beginning next school year.

The resolution includes elimination of digital device use for students in early childhood education through first grade and grade-based screen time limits.

“We know that tech is not going away and can be a powerful tool in the classroom,” said Nick Melvoin, the lead sponsor of the resolution, during the April 21 board meeting, Education Week first reported. “This is not about going backwards. This is about rethinking screen time in schools to ensure we are doing what actually helps students learn best.”

Kaul said the LAUSD measures, in part, inspired the CMS parents behind the petition.

Glynn said some CMS students plan to speak on the issue at next week’s school board meeting.

“I think that’s the most powerful voice on this,” he said. “This is for them.”