Billionaire Bill Ackman is continuing his quest to change ‘woke’ education in America by backing new, AI-assisted ‘Alpha Schools’ in seven states.
Ackman has been on a mission to remove ‘woke ideology’ from Ivy League campuses but his Alpha Schools will focus on K-12 education.
Alpha Schools already exist in Texas, Florida and California and are coming to four more states this fall, including a Manhattan campus, heading to Ackman’s backyard, where he will become an ambassador.
The schools use artificial intelligence and teachers are known as ‘guides’ – many of whom don’t have traditional teaching backgrounds – who help ‘speed-teach’ two hour lessons to students.
They claim that the two-hour, AI-software backed lessons teach students twice as much than a traditional school.
Children are still kept active in the afternoons with 5-mile bike rides and AI-generated plans that allow children to explore personal hobbies and teaching practical skills like entrepreneurship, public speaking and financial literacy, according to WSJ.
Ackman, whom some have hailed as the new Warren Buffett, hailed the program on social media: ‘The first truly breakthrough innovation in K-12 education that I have seen since the Kipp Academy.’
‘The bottom line: Alpha kids love school and have incredible outcomes.’
Billionaire Bill Ackman is continuing his charge to change education in America as he’s backing new, AI-assisted ‘Alpha Schools’ in four states
While much of Ackman’s activism has been aimed at rooting DEI and ‘ woke ideology’ out of the Ivy League schools that helped make him, Alpha Schools are aimed at K-12 education
Co-founder Mackenzie Price noted that social issues and politics are not allowed in her classrooms.
‘We do not let anything – political, social issues – come in the way. We stay very much out of that,’ she said.
The schools are charging ‘founding families’ anywhere from $45,000 to $60,000 a year for tuition.
Unsurprisingly, liberal teachers union head Randi Weingarten is not a fan of Price’s ideas.
‘Students and our country need to be in relationship with other human beings. When you have a school that is strictly A.I., it is violating that core precept of the human endeavor and of education,’ she told The New York Times.
Ackman has long been at odds with Harvard, criticizing the university for not doing enough to protect students from antisemitism.
Early last year he launched an unsuccessful bid to get four candidates on the ballot for a governing board.
The financier runs New York-based hedge fund firm Pershing Square Capital Management and has been a vocal supporter of Trump’s policies on tariffs and spending.
Co-founder Mackenzie Price (pictured) noted that social issues and politics are not allowed in her classrooms
Alpha Schools already exist in Texas, Florida and California and are coming to four states this fall, including a Manhattan campus, heading to Ackman’s backyard, where he will become an ambassador
Harvard is ‘a collection of buildings, nice real estate’ located in Cambridge, Massachusetts next to the Charles River, he said.
But its cutting-edge faculty, researchers and students could easily move elsewhere, he said.
‘This is the best time in history to start a university.’
He also again hit out at the school’s governing board, saying it has become insular and that there is no mechanism to remove members the way there is in corporate America where investors can run board challenges.
‘What happens when you have a board that can self-appoint itself, and it becomes insular, and with a $53 billion endowment, they think, okay, we can just do whatever is on our mind.’