AI schools like Alpha promise efficiency, but can’t replicate the messy process that helps kids learn
Publish Date: 2026-06-15 08:38:00
Source Domain: theconversation.com
A child at a playground tries to climb, jump or negotiate with a peer, and their attempt does not work. They fall, get left out of a game or reach another impasse. Then they try again.
Failure, conflict and frustration might look like a struggle, but this is often how children learn.
I have spent 20 years studying digital literacy and how technology reshapes learning. My work turns on a simple question: What do people gain, and what do they lose, as society largely moves from traditional print to online learning? With this in mind, I believe that this question is growing more urgent as artificial intelligence-driven schooling gains ground.
AI-powered educational programs like Alpha School, a growing private network of schools, replace much of the school day with adaptive software that adjusts lessons to each student’s pace and abilities.
The pitch is personalized learning: Give each student the right material at the right moment, and they will succeed academically.
The deeper you look at how children learn, the clearer it becomes that this growing brand of alternative schools might remove the discomfort that often comes with learning – taking away what matters most as kids develop.
MacKenzie Price, left, the co-founder of Alpha School, meets with U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon and Alpha students at the Alpha School’s campus in Austin, Texas, in September 2025.
Rick Kern/Getty Images for Alpha School
Welcome to Alpha
Alpha School was launched in 2014 by the tech entrepreneur MacKenzie Price and the private equity billionaire Joseph Liemandt. It is perhaps the most well known of the growing list of AI K-12 schools operating in the United States.
Alpha represents a particular vision of education reform – one that has caught the attention of the Trump administration. Education Secretary Linda McMahon toured its Austin, Texas, campus in 2025, and…
