65K Private School Uses AI To Teach Students In Just Two Hours A Day — In Silicon Valley Bid...

A private school that's opening campuses from New York to California uses AI bots to teach kids their academic subjects in just two hours a day – claiming its Silicon Valley methods could shake up the future of US education. Alpha School – a chain of private and charter schools founded in Austin, Texas in 2014 – opened its campus in downtown Manhattan's Financial District last fall.

In California, it opened schools last summer in San Francisco, Santa Barbara and Lake Forest in Orange County. There are no teachers, no homework – and tuition can run a stiff $65,000 a year. The company is led by MacKenzie Price – a 49-year-old, Stanford-educated entrepreneur who regularly churns out videos to her 1 million Instagram followers, claiming Alpha can teach students twice as fast as conventional schools.

Price speaks the language of disruption, warning that traditional schools have “poisoned” young minds. Alpha staffers, she says, strive to instill a “growth mindset” – a hustle-culture phrase often used by tech bros – as they encourage kids to set their own goals and challenges. “Teachers aren't going to be replaced, they're going to be transformed, and it's such an exciting time for them,⁘ Price told The Post in an interview.

Some critics are wary of Alpha's placement of screens at the center of its daily program versus conventional teachers, questioning whether it amounts to a high-tech experiment that could put kids' mental health at risk. “I believe it's dangerous to wipe teachers from classrooms,” said Joe Vercellino, a Detroit Teacher of the Year and founder of The Lion Heart Experience, which brings mental health programming to schools.