Leaders of Alpha School, a rapidly expanding network of private educational institutions, faced a series of rejections while attempting to persuade state authorities that their AI-driven teaching model should be integrated into publicly funded charter schools.
The Alpha approach revolves around the concept that students can achieve mastery in core subjects such as reading and math within just two hours each day, facilitated by AI software. Human instructors, known as guides, are primarily tasked with providing motivation and emotional support. The school’s promotional slogan, “School is broken, and we’re here to fix it,” encapsulates its ambitious mission.
However, over the past two years, numerous state officials have expressed doubts about this model, labeling it as “untested” and “experimental.” For instance, a charter school board member in North Carolina raised concerns that two hours of instruction might be insufficient to cover all necessary subjects. Similarly, in Utah, an official worried that instructors might function more as “life coaches” than traditional educators.
Even the Texas State Board of Education, which has historically approved most charter applications, declined Alpha’s proposal last summer.
“I’m just a little skeptical of those types of gains,” remarked Keven Ellis, a Republican board member in Texas, in response to Alpha’s claims of significant academic improvements achieved in a short time frame.
By spring 2024, Alpha had sought to establish charter schools in at least ten states, as noted in an Instagram post by co-founder MacKenzie Price. Only Arizona granted approval.
In her post, Price mentioned meetings with representatives from the White House and various policymakers, highlighting the challenges of enacting change. However, she did not disclose that Texas was initiating a new education program enabling private schools to receive state funding, from which Alpha was poised to benefit. This novel voucher initiative would allocate tax dollars for select students’ homeschooling or private school tuition. Price and her husband, Andy, had previously contributed over $2 million to Texas legislators and political action committees that supported the program.
Now, merely a year after Texas rejected Alpha’s charter application, the company has significantly expanded its presence, boasting more than 30 private campuses, both virtual and in-person, most of which have been accepted into the voucher program. This rapid growth positions Alpha as one of the largest private school networks participating in the initiative.
Democrat Tiffany Clark, a Texas State Board of Education member who voted against Alpha’s charter application, criticized the school’s strategy. “They took a backdoor approach,” she said, emphasizing the shift from charter to private status to access state funds.
Texas and Arizona have emerged as the first states to approve Alpha’s campuses for participation in school choice programs, though the company may qualify in additional states. Starting from a single campus in Austin, Alpha now operates in 17 states and Puerto Rico, with most of these regions running voucher programs.
ProPublica has previously reported that the number of private schools in the U.S. has surged in recent years, often with minimal oversight as states implement voucher programs. This trend has raised concerns about taxpayer money being funneled to school leaders with histories of misusing public funds or mistreating students. Texas officials, who have implemented one of the largest voucher programs in the nation, assured constituents that robust safeguards were in place, unlike those in other states.
However, Alpha’s entry into the voucher program, following the state board’s rejection of its charter model, highlights the shortcomings of those purported safeguards. Instead of reapplying to the state education board, Alpha submitted its application to the Texas comptroller’s office, which oversees the voucher program. The comptroller’s office assessed only four criteria: the school’s operation in Texas, accreditation, a two-year operational history, and administration of annual standardized tests.
None of Alpha’s private schools were required to adhere to state curriculum standards or demonstrate how their educational model would ensure student success. Concerns raised by the Texas board regarding Alpha’s charter applications, test scores, or reliance on AI in teaching were disregarded.
“That wasn’t relevant,” stated Travis Pillow, a spokesperson for the voucher program. “Our role is to make sure that a school meets the requirements in the law.”
None of the Alpha leaders or the company’s press office participated in interviews or responded to most inquiries from the newsrooms, including those related to student test scores. An Alpha spokesperson provided a limited email response addressing previous reports from other media outlets. In past interviews, Alpha officials have defended their model, asserting it has significantly improved student outcomes and claims that their students rank in the top 1% to 2% nationally.
Price co-founded Alpha School in 2014, driven by a desire to create a learning environment that allowed students to progress at their own pace—an endeavor sparked by her own daughter’s experiences in public education. This mission gained momentum four years ago when tech entrepreneur Joe Liemandt invested $1 billion into the school and its AI-driven platform with an ambitious goal of reaching one billion students worldwide. Since then, Alpha has evolved into a large education enterprise with a growing national profile, capturing the attention of influential figures like billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and Elon Musk, who plans to use Starlink internet to facilitate the establishment of more Alpha schools globally.
Education experts have expressed skepticism regarding Alpha’s ambitious claims, pointing out that private institutions often attract affluent students who are likely to excel academically. ProPublica and the Tribune consulted five experts who indicated that private schools are not mandated to disclose their internal data, making it easy to highlight only favorable outcomes.
The newsrooms also investigated Alpha’s performance among lower-income students and charter schools, uncovering a partnership with an existing charter in Texas that has not been previously reported. Experts noted that in these instances, Alpha either failed to provide adequate data to substantiate its claimed successes or that test results shared by state education agencies did not align with the anticipated academic progress claimed by the company.
“I don’t believe their claims that typical students will see rapid improvements,” stated Justin Reich, director of the Teaching Systems Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “There are tons of reasons to be skeptical of that claim.”
In pursuit of their goal to educate a billion students, Alpha’s leaders recognized the necessity of integrating into the public education system they sought to transform.
By 2024, the company was engaged in an aggressive nationwide effort to establish virtual or in-person charter schools in a majority of states.
The concept intrigued some state leaders, who appreciated the self-paced learning model and the opportunity to pioneer AI instruction in classrooms. “My mind is kind of blown by all this,” remarked one education official in North Carolina in September 2024.
However, charter leaders across the nation voiced similar concerns that ultimately led to the rejection of Alpha’s proposals, based on ProPublica and the Tribune’s review of applications, interviews, and written feedback from six states: Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Utah.
Officials in each state expressed apprehension about the potential implications of Alpha’s AI-driven platform replacing certified educators in delivering lessons. Many also doubted that students could effectively master essential subjects in just two hours per day or that Alpha’s curriculum aligned with state requirements. In Utah, Alpha representatives conceded they had not verified curriculum standards prior to submitting their application.
Several states criticized Alpha’s tendency to project exponential enrollment growth year after year, as well as the lack of community support and outreach to substantiate their claims. At times, Alpha’s leaders indicated they had surveyed Price’s social media followers to gauge parental interest in a given state.
At least two state education boards expressed concern over Alpha’s plan to retain Price and her husband on the charter’s oversight board while simultaneously compensating their companies for services related to the two-hour learning platform. The Prices acknowledged the conflict of interest and pledged to rectify it. In Arizona, the only state to approve the Alpha-affiliated charter, Andy Price stated in 2024 that they were “fully committed to having a majority board of 100% independent Arizona folks by the end of this year.” However, MacKenzie and Andy Price were still on the board as recently as June, according to meeting minutes.
One of the most consistent concerns among state officials was that Alpha’s model had only been tested with affluent students whose families could afford private tuition or with students on scholarships. They questioned the effectiveness of the learning platform in charter schools, where students might lag academically or have special educational needs. In at least four charter applications, Alpha claimed to utilize programs like the language-learning app Duolingo to assist English learners.
A new Alpha school opened near Houston this year.
Alpha leaders frequently countered concerns by citing successful test scores from two more diverse campuses in Texas. However, experts noted that the achievements cited were not as straightforward as they appeared.
For example, Alpha collaborated with Texas Preparatory School, a charter that had been facing potential closure due to poor student test scores and financial audits. An Alpha representative informed Texas education officials in May 2025 that after implementing their two-hour learning model, the proportion of students passing state exams improved from failing to 50%-60%. However, test results published by the Texas Education Agency contradicted this claim, indicating that student performance may have declined following Alpha’s involvement. The percentage of students achieving “approaches grade level,” the lowest passing category, increased slightly from 19% to 21%, while the share of students at grade level plummeted from
