Data Center Industry Courts Schoolchildren as Public Backlash Grows

At least eleven companies and industry groups have hosted student field trips to data centers since 2025, according to a WIRED tally of public blogs and social media posts, as the industry works to rebuild public goodwill amid escalating opposition to its energy-hungry build-outs.

The outreach extends well beyond tours. The nonprofit 7x24 Exchange International, which describes data centers as "mission critical" infrastructure, recommends a children's story titled "What is a Data Center?" The book follows a honey badger named Honey who tours a data center with a worker named Oliver, who explains that employees ensure the "functions supported by the data center" are available to anybody, "no matter what time it is."

"Like when my mom shops online late at night because my dad is sleeping and won't know about it?" Honey asks.

The stakes are considerable. A Pew Research poll conducted over the summer found that about half of 10,000 Americans surveyed see data centers as "mostly bad" for the environment and quality of life. An ideologically diverse cohort of communities has started rallying against new facilities, and in some places, negative sentiment has been amplified by the proximity of data centers to local schools.

Why is the industry targeting children?

Alex Molnar, a research professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and director of the National Education Policy Center, told WIRED that for over a century, industries with an image problem—fast food, tobacco, oil and gas—have brought their messaging into schools.

"A very, very big reason why corporations get involved in the schools is, quite simply, corporate propaganda—for the purpose not necessarily of selling a product, but of telling their 'story,'" Molnar said.

Providing educational materials and offering field trips are ways industries maintain their social license to operate in a community. The oil and gas sector has sponsored university research and K-12 STEM programs. Fossil fuel companies have spent millions of dollars developing K-12 lessons with pro-industry talking points, particularly in Oklahoma and Texas. The tech sector has funded STEM programs and lobbied to make computer science count as a science credit.

Molnar argues children are uniquely vulnerable to this kind of messaging because they are "in an absolutely powerless position."

"As an adult, I have access to alternative information—I have a critical ability to assess what I'm hearing, and to render some kind of judgments," Molnar said. "None of that is true of children."

He believes school districts and communities should protect children from corporate influence, and questions the appeal of the facilities themselves.

"Why would a third grader be interested in a data center?" Molnar said. "You're going to see miles after miles of the most boring things imaginable. Lines after lines of these servers generating enormous volumes of heat. You're also going to hear some fair amount of noise. And you're not going to see many people because not many people work there when they're built."

What is happening in Data Center Alley?

In May, the Potomac chapter of AFCOM, a trade group for the data center industry, sponsored Memorial Day-themed flag-making kits for 3,100 first graders across 37 schools in Loudoun County, Virginia—the region known as Data Center Alley. Alongside the flag kits, children received an informational card with statistics about "the positive impact" the data center industry has on the local economy.

Amazon, for its part, hosted a field trip last February at its Arlington, Virginia, "Skills Center," a free community space for anyone "curious about cloud computing and future job possibilities." The event was open to any high school in the DC metro area, though Jackson-Reed High School was the only school to attend.

The pattern is broader than any single company. According to WIRED's review, the companies and groups involved in student field trips since 2025 span the country.

• 7x24 Exchange has visited or organized at least a half-dozen K-12 events at schools nationwide this year.
• Sabey, which runs seven US data centers, hosted trips in May for Eastmont High School students, in January for Manson School District students, and last October for Quincy High School students, all in Washington State.
• 7x24 Exchange brought Fridley High School students in Minnesota to a local Cummins diesel power generation facility to learn about the "generators that power data centers worldwide." (7x24 Exchange, Cummins, and Fridley High School did not respond to WIRED's request for comment.)

Quincy School District communications coordinator Jessica Blancas told WIRED the district "has organized data center visits for many years" at facilities run by Microsoft, Vantage, Yahoo, and Sabey. She described Sabey as a "long-standing" district partner, citing its consistent work offering "guest speakers," "mock interviews," and "internship opportunities."

Blancas added that the district has organized "all-girls visits to Sabey," as well as tours for students who intend to enter fields like construction or engineering. (Manson School District and Sabey did not respond to a request for comment.)

Manson School District publicized its Sabey trip in a blog post showing what appears to be adults and students in a conference room. The image was labeled "AI-generated content," and several people in the photo have missing limbs. The blog said students learned about "the role data centers play in storing, processing, and protecting information" and "the wide range of careers" in the industry.

What materials are reaching elementary schools?

7x24 Exchange also created a holiday it calls "International Data Center Day," which is "designed to create awareness of the data center industry and inspire the next generation of talent." The nonprofit encourages supporters to pitch the holiday to school administrators.

For participating high schools, it offers a celebratory crossword puzzle and information about data center training programs. For elementary schools, it provides:

• Data center-themed coloring pages.
• Instructions for an evaporation-themed science project.
• Print-out activities such as "Draw a picture of the cloud" and "Draw a data superhero."

The group also promotes several data center-themed books for young readers. One follows two sisters who visit a data center and meet a robot named JB. Another features two brothers who visit a "vibrant digital world" and save the internet. A third, "Polly Packet's Precious Payload," follows a mother who teaches her daughter about data centers.

How much pressure is the industry under?

The school outreach comes as financial and political signals around data centers turn mixed. CoreWeave's bonds, which the company sells to finance its data centers, saw a sharp selloff this week accompanied by a stock drop, followed by a slight recovery—a reflection of increasing skittishness around the build-out. Bloomberg also reports that CoreWeave's founders have sold $3.3 billion in stock since the company went public.

Local opposition is producing concrete results. Westfield, Massachusetts, killed a $3 billion data center project after the town's planning board criticized developer Servistar for missing deadlines and slow progress, boston.com reported.

The issue has even reached the campaign trail. Thursday's debate in Maine's Senate race between incumbent Republican Susan Collins and Democratic challenger Troy Jackson was interrupted by a protester shouting about the environmental impact of data centers. Collins attempted to use the moment to position herself as the more anti-data-center candidate, though her finances might indicate otherwise.

The industry's turn toward children mirrors a well-worn strategy: when lobbying, job creation programs, and tax breaks fail to quiet opposition, companies seek goodwill at the community level—and few community institutions reach more families than schools. Whether coloring pages and honey badger storybooks can offset concerns about energy consumption and noise will test how far a softened public relations approach can carry a sector facing organized resistance on multiple fronts.