Over the past decade, the AI-focused, for-profit Alpha School has grown from one campus in Austin, Texas, to a growing list of more than 15 schools across the country, including in major cities like New York and San Francisco.
Alpha School joins other AI-centric K-12 private schools, like Unbound Academy and the Khan Lab School, that parents can now choose for their children, paying anywhere from US$40,000 to $75,000 in some cases each year.
Some advocates of AI-driven education use slogans like “School is broken, and we’re here to fix it.”
MacKenzie Price, one of Alpha School’s co-founders, has described her frustration with the “one-size-fits-all” model of schooling, in which all students study the same material, but often learn at different speeds.
Sal Khan, the founder of the online educational platform Khan Academy, has also argued that artificial intelligence could give every student an individual tutor that is responsive to their specific needs.
