Texas Businesswoman Wants to Open AI-Driven, Teacherless Cyber Charter School in Pennsylvania

From Bucks County Beacon

MacKenzie Price has made headlines with a charter school that uses two hours of AI instead of human teachers, then expanded that model to cyber schools under the “Unbound Academic Institute” brand. Now she is awaiting approval from the Pennsylvania Department of Education that would bring that same cyber charter model to cash in on the commonwealth’s already-crowded, yet still profitable, cyber school marketplace.

Price, a Stanford graduate now living in Austin, Texas, started her entrepreneurial journey with Alpha charter schools. In this glowing profile from Austin Woman, Price tells the origin story of Alpha Schools, starting with her own child:

“Very early on, I started noticing frustration around the lack of ability for the traditional model to be able to personalize anything,” she recalls. “About halfway through my daughter’s second grade year, she came home and said, ‘I don’t want to go to school tomorrow.’ She looked at me and she said, ‘School is so boring,’ and I just had this lightbulb moment. They’ve taken this kid who’s tailor-made to wanna be a good student, and they’ve wiped away that passion.”

Price, who has no previous experience in education, launched Alpha Schools about a decade ago, powered by a model that she soon spun off into its own company – 2 Hour Learning. She has thoughts about how long education needs to take, as she told Madeline Parrish of Arizona Republic:

“When you’re getting one-to-one personalized learning, it doesn’t take all day. Having a personal tutor is absolutely the best way for a student to learn.“

The snake oil pitch is even more direct on the company’s website:

“School is broken, and we’re here to fix it. 2 Hour Learning gives students an AI tutor that allows them to: Learn 2X in 2 Hours.”

The personal tutor in this case is a collection of computer apps. After two hours at the computer, students spend the rest of the day pursuing “personal interests” and joining in life skills workshops. There are no teachers in Alpha’s schools, but “guides” are on hand to provide motivation and support. Tuition at most of the Alpha campuses is $40,000 a year.

As Price tells an “interviewer” in one paid advertorial:

“Yes, it’s absolutely possible! Not only can they learn in two hours what they would learn all day in a traditional classroom, the payoffs are unbelievable! My students master their core curriculum through personalized learning in two hours. That opens up the rest of their day to focus on life skills and finding where their passions meet purpose. Students love it because it takes them away from the all-day lecture-based classroom model. Instead, my students are following their passions.“

Price has been clear that “AI” in this case does not mean a ChatGPT type Large Language Model, but apps more along the lines of IXL Math or Khan Academy’s Khanmigo, that pitch themselves as being able to analyze student responses and pick a next assignment that fits, or perhaps recommend a video to explain a challenging point.

If that seems like an extraordinary stretch, Price has decided to go one better and turn that model into a virtual charter model. How that model would manage the “personal interest” afternoon structure is not entirely clear; one application promises “a blend of scheduled live interactions and self-managed projects.” As the application promises, “No Teachers, Just Guidance.”

And that model is the one Unbound wants to bring to Pennsylvania.

Read the full article here.