By Winston W. Roberts
When the news broke that Alpha School was using an AI tutor to help students achieve twice the academic growth in just two hours a day, headlines exploded: “AustinTexas School Replaces Teachers with AI,” “AI Tutor Boosts Texas Private School Test Scores to Top 2% in the Country,” and so on. Naturally, the edtech world spiraled into a debate about the validity of test scores and whether artificial intelligence can truly replace traditional teaching. But as I followed the story, read the white paper, and watched the co-founder’s interviews, I realized the biggest story wasn’t being told.
The real story isn’t what happens during those two hours of AI-supported instruction. It’s what happens in the other four hours of the school day.
At Alpha, once students finish their core academic work using adaptive AI tools, they spend the rest of their school day learning things like financial literacy, public speaking, entrepreneurship, and navigating the world confidently. That’s what we should be talking about. That’s what our kids deserve, too.
I’m not here to defend or debunk Alpha’s MAP growth scores. Sure, being a private school with selective admissions and abundant resources makes a difference. But the idea that a school would prioritize giving students the space to master real-world skills—while encouraging them to use AI as a tool for exploration and problem-solving—really caught my attention. That kind of intentional design isn’t science fiction. It’s what more schools should be striving for.
A few years ago, I co-created a financial literacy course for middle schoolers in Newark with my colleague Stefon Bowman. In a school serving mostly Black, low-income students, we turned classrooms into boardrooms—where kids became ‘financial consultants’ helping fictional peers save for sneakers and a PlayStation 5. Today, I teach a high school version of that course in Trenton. The setting is different, but the spirit is the same: real-world application, student agency, and a belief that our kids can solve real problems when given the tools and trust to do so. These pockets of innovation are powerful—but we need more investment, more imagination, and more courage to make them the norm, not the exception.
That’s what the AI tutor story should be about. Not whether a robot can replace a teacher. But whether we, as educators and leaders, are ready to rethink what we do with the school day once kids have mastered the basics.
The uncomfortable truth is that wealthy, mostly white, private school students are training to use AI as a launchpad. They are learning how to harness it, how to communicate powerfully, how to build companies, and how to lead. Meanwhile, too many Black and Brown public school students are getting banned from using AI at all—accused of cheating, suspended for plagiarism, or left without guidance. And when they finally encounter it, they’re already steps behind.
When I first saw what tools like ChatGPT could do, I had a vision of my most brilliant students sitting in college lecture halls next to wealthier peers who were already fluent in AI while my kids were still asking, “Wait, isn’t that cheating?”
That moment stuck with me and pushed me to ensure the students I serve are a part of this next wave. AI is moving fast, and if we don’t make intentional choices, it’s going to widen gaps instead of closing them.
The Alpha School story is a warning—but not the kind the headlines suggest. It’s not about the end of teachers. It’s about what happens when kids have time to go beyond the basics and when adults are willing to let go of outdated ideas about what a school day should look like.
This moment is a fork in the road. We can keep chasing test scores and hoping new tech makes kids 2% better at standardized reading passages. Or we can ask a better question: What if we stopped debating whether kids should use AI and started preparing them to use it well?
That future belongs to the creators, problem-solvers, and innovators—students who practice applying knowledge to real-world challenges. We must ask ourselves: What future are we preparing our kids for?
Imagine our kids designing their own businesses, pitching product ideas, or building AI-powered solutions to issues they see in their communities. That’s not a loss of structure—it’s an investment in purpose. And what if this wasn’t just the privilege of the wealthy? What if every student, no matter their zip code, had access to these tools and opportunities—to grow academically, creatively, financially, and civically?
That’s the promise. And it’s within reach—if we choose to build toward it.
AI isn’t magic. It’s a mirror. And right now, it’s reflecting a system that trusts some kids to create and others to comply.
We have the tools. The real question is: Do we have the courage to use them to build a future where all our kids can see themselves?
Winston W. Roberts is the AI Innovation Lead at Foundation Academy in Trenton, NJ, the founder of Teacher in a Suit, and a master’s student at the University of Pennsylvania. He writes at the intersection of AI, education, and equity.
