{
  "id": 6562622,
  "title": "Wealthy parents are buying their kids $75,000 AI schooling with guardrails as schools grapple with a literacy crisis",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/10/wealthy-parents-are-buying-their-kids-75-000-ai-schooling-with",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-09-10T07:03:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/09/10/alpha-school-wealthy-parents-ai-school/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Wealthy parents are investing up to $75,000 annually to provide their children with AI-powered education at the Alpha School, a private institution with over 1,200 students and plans to expand to 50 campuses this year. At Alpha, students dedicate two hours daily to core subjects under the guidance of AI tutors, followed by workshops focused on skills such as public speaking and relationship building. Human teachers, known as \"Guides,\" are present to foster connections with students but are not responsible for lesson planning or grading assignments.\n\nThe rationale behind this approach is that proficiency in utilizing AI will be essential in the future job market, given the anticipated reduction in entry-level positions and increased demand for AI literacy. Sarah Cone, a venture capitalist whose 8-year-old daughter attends Alpha, supports this viewpoint, stating that learning to use AI effectively is a crucial skill that should be integrated into schooling.\n\nHowever, the availability of such AI-driven education remains limited to affluent families, as public schools nationwide struggle to incorporate the technology due to factors such as teacher turnover and the pressure to improve test scores with limited resources. Huriya Jabbar, an education policy professor at the University of Southern California, highlights that schools serving low-income students face additional challenges in innovating teaching methods due to the heightened emphasis on test scores and inadequate bandwidth for experimentation.\n\nThe debate surrounding AI integration in education centers on the potential erosion of cognitive abilities resulting from indiscriminate usage. Neuroscientist Jared Cooney Horvath testified to Congress that screen-based learning negatively impacts students' cognitive capabilities and contributes to lower test scores. He emphasizes the need to align educational tools with human learning processes, rather than merely expanding digital resources without considering their impact on learning environments.\n\nA study on AI adoption among Chinese students aged 7-12 reveals that while AI improves homework scores by 18%, it negatively affects exam scores by 20%. This trend is concerning as foundational literacy skills are declining. Reading and math performances of 15-year-olds in 38 free-market democracies, as measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), have reached an all-time low, with U.S. students' average reading scores dropping by 14 points to 490, the lowest since the exam's introduction in 2000.\n\nFurthermore, students are arriving at college unprepared to process lengthy passages and often rely on AI summaries for their reading. Gen Z, in particular, reads significantly fewer books than older generations, with Americans aged 18-25 averaging only 5.8 books annually, compared to 12.1 for those aged 65 and older and 8.2 for those between 30-44. Despite these challenges, educators must prioritize the development of critical thinking skills in students, even when AI can interpret texts and generate writing.\n\nKirsten Peterson, a senior project manager at the nonprofit Education Development Center, underscores the importance of teaching students to question, connect ideas, evaluate evidence, and navigate ambiguity, even when AI can provide interpretations and generate content. She cautions against using AI to undermine the essential cognitive processes required for literacy development.",
  "summary": "Alpha School has AI tutor core subjects and afternoons devoted to life skills workshops as schools nationwide face historically low reading scores.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}