August 27, 2025
The Alpha School will open its doors as Northern Virginia’s first private school led by traditional artificial intelligence.
The Alpha School will open its doors as Northern Virginia’s first private school led by traditional artificial intelligence.
The new institution is scheduled to open this fall near Dulles International Airport. Students from K-3 will enroll at the price of $65,000 per year. The learning model is unconventional as there are no teachers present. Additionally, students are only required to attend two hours each day. Students will focus on their core subjects via adaptive software. Difficulty and mastery will be assessed using AI. Although there are no teachers, students will have access to “guides” who can help troubleshoot problems, The Washington Post reported.
Alpha Co-Founder MacKenzie Price believes, “kids do not need to sit in class all day doing academics.”
Price says her AI system adjusts to each child’s pace and capability. For those who believe that school has become too political, Price emphasized that AI programs avoid including political content in their lesson plans.
Billionaire investor Bill Ackman champions the program. He has become an Alpha ambassador, though he holds no financial stake.
Ackman praised the model as “the first truly breakthrough innovation in K-12 education,” while affirming that it keeps classrooms free of discussions around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
While the erasure of DEI is a boon for some, critics are raising alarms. Stanford education researcher Victor Lee warned that highly curated student bodies, typically from a higher socioeconomic status with access to more resources, may limit the applicability of AI models like Alpha’s. Plus, the long-term impact of minimizing human interaction remains unknown.
Virginia’s state education leaders are also taking caution when evaluating the inclusion of AI in the classroom. Trained educators have attended AI workshops to gain a better understanding of the technology’s application. Additionally, guidelines are being shaped to ensure the technology serves as a support tool and does not replace teacher-led learning.
Still, for families like former Gov. Ricardo Rosselló’s, whose children participated in a “shadow day” at the school, the model holds appeal. Rosselló described the school’s mix of flexible academics and purposeful skills as “really, really compelling and powerful.”
For Price, Virginia’s new campus is only one step in a much larger vision. Her company already teaches about 300 students across three sites in Austin and Brownsville, Texas, as well as Miami. Beyond those classrooms, the Alpha model is being tested in smaller micro-school settings.
Price has also been making her case in Washington. Earlier this year, she met with Michael Kratsios, the head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, to review Alpha’s AI curriculum. This comes after Trump signed an executive order outlining plans to integrate AI into K-12 education nationwide.
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