Pennsylvania Rejects Application for Cyber Charter School with AI Teacher and Two Hours of Daily Class
This article was originally published in Pennsylvania Capital-Star.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education on Wednesday denied an application for a controversial cyber charter school that uses artificial intelligence called Unbound Academy, which was seeking to operate in Pennsylvania.
The proposed school would have been part of a multi-state network of schools where classes are led by AI tutors and human staff serve as 'guides.'
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'The artificial intelligence instructional model being proposed by this school is untested and fails to demonstrate how the tools, methods and providers would ensure alignment to Pennsylvania academic standards,' the Department of Education's decision said.
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Human teachers' unions and advocacy groups applauded the decision.
'AI can help teachers, but it can never replace a teacher guiding a student's learning in a classroom,' Pennsylvania State Education Association President Aaron Chapin said in a statement. 'Pennsylvania's students are better off because the Department of Education rejected this cyber charter school application today.'
Susan Spicka, the executive director of Education Voters of PA, a nonprofit advocacy group, called Unbound Academy's cyber charter application 'egregiously deficient.'
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The decision to reject the application cited multiple issues with Unbound Academy's initial proposal. Those included concerns about unrealistic projections for enrollment growth, whether the school could attain insurance and its ability to support special education based on the proposed budget and tuition rates.
The Department of Education also said Unbound Academy's application failed to provide sufficient information about the curriculum, courses and planned student activities.
'The department finds multiple, significant deficiencies,' the decision read. 'These deficiencies, individually, collectively, and in any combination, are cause to deny the application. '
The website for 2 Hour Learning, the company that provides the AI model Unbound Academy hoped to use, says their students 'crush academics' at an accelerated pace with only two hours of academic instruction per day, based on data from their flagship 'Alpha School.'
'Traditional school is broken. It's outdated, full of busywork, and sadly for our kids, often a waste of time,' Mackenzie Price, the co-founder of 2 Hour Learning, says in a promotional video on their website. She said students at schools using their technology can learn 'twice as much in two hours per day as they would in six hours of traditional school.'
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The company says their program is already being used in schools in Texas and Florida, with more set to open in California and Arizona this fall.
Since it was announced, the proposed cyber charter school raised red flags with critics of cyber charter schools, as well as lawmakers in Harrisburg.
Sen. Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny), the minority chair of the Senate Education Committee, said she plans to introduce a bill calling for a moratorium on the approval of new cyber charter schools, citing Unbound Academy specifically. A memo seeking co-sponsors said operators of schools like Unbound Academy 'perceive our state as ripe for profiteering off of Pennsylvania's children and taxpayers.'
The proposal is backed by Education Voters of PA.
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There are currently 14 cyber charter schools operating in Pennsylvania, and they've experienced an enrollment boom since the outbreak of the COVID pandemic. The schools are funded with taxpayer money, taken in part from the budgets of local school districts where their students would have otherwise enrolled. Though last year's changes to the school funding formula eased that burden by providing reimbursements for some of those lost funds.
This week, Education Voters of Pennsylvania released a report on spending at the state's largest online charter school, Commonwealth Charter Academy. They found that hundreds of thousands of dollars were used on vehicles, dining, travel, entertainment and retail purchases.
Commonwealth Charter Academy's chief branding and government relations officer told the Capital-Star that the findings were 'cherry-picked' and the expenditures were 'well within what is customary for organizations of like size that have a statewide footprint'
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A 2019 Department of Education report found that students at cyber charter schools typically performed worse or the same as those in traditional public schools based on academic tests. However, cyber charter students typically had higher rates of attendance and graduation.
A contact listed on Unbound Academy's application did not respond to a request for comment.
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Pennsylvania Capital-Star is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Pennsylvania Capital-Star maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor for questions: info@penncapital-star.com.
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