Many schools didn't teach writing in any decent way, but somehow expected kids to do it well.

Not always for the better, Chuck.

My concern is the knee jerk reaction to solve problems created by technology with more technology. And many studies show that writing longhand is good for critical thinking.

What about those with difficulty typing? You can't come up with a solution that works for everyone. And why not prepare and train the students to write essays? It worked for a long time.

Making the students write longhand has many benefits beside precluding using AI. This solution costs almost nothing to implement and doesn't require special software.

No one should sing karaoke... not in fiction or real life.

Four or so. Paperbacks.

You can turn copilot off in Word. Go to File>options and flip the copilot switch.