Alpha School, a private school chain that replaces certified teachers with an artificial intelligence platform for core instruction, plans to open two campuses in Oklahoma on August 12. The Edmond campus, branded as the Oklahoma City location, will serve kindergarten through 10th grade. The Tulsa campus will serve kindergarten through 8th grade.
Tuition is $40,000 per year. That is nearly double the $27,950 that Casady School, the most expensive existing private school in the state, charges for high school. Founding families receive a $10,000 annual discount for five years, bringing tuition to $30,000. No financial aid is available in the first year.
The instructional model centers on two hours each morning on a proprietary AI platform called 2 Hour Learning. Students spend 30 minutes each on math, reading, science, and social studies. Afternoons are devoted to project-based workshops led by guides who do not touch the curriculum and are not in the room during the AI learning sessions.
Guides, accreditation, and the tax credit
Guides are not required to have teacher certification. Alpha requires a bachelor's degree in any subject and vets candidates with a cognitive test, background check, and a months-long training camp in Austin. Oklahoma job postings list guide salaries of $100,000 to $150,000 per year.
Alpha School holds system-level accreditation from Cognia, achieved on March 31, 2025. But Cognia has not yet conducted site visits at the new Oklahoma locations. Cognia will need to verify compliance on the ground before the campuses are formally included in the accreditation, which could occur by next school year.
The Edmond campus was briefly listed on the Oklahoma Tax Commission's directory of schools approved for the Parental Choice Tax Credit, a program that gives families up to $7,500 per year toward private school tuition. The Tax Commission removed Alpha from the list after Oklahoma Watch asked about it. Alpha said it did not apply for the tax credit program.
Oklahoma law makes private school accreditation optional. Private schools may be accredited by the State Board of Education or by a private accrediting association approved by the board, according to state statute. For the tax credit program, the Tax Commission accepts accreditation from any organization without verifying whether standards have been met.
The Oklahoman reported that in the 2025-2026 academic year, $169 million in tax credits went to families earning more than $75,000, which is above the state median household income of $65,039. The same report noted that the Tax Commission does not determine whether a private school has met accreditation standards.
Where the law draws the line
The Oklahoma Responsible Technology in Schools Act, passed unanimously through both chambers in May 2026 and signed into law, requires all public school districts to establish an AI policy. It mandates that educators retain final decision-making authority over AI-assisted instruction, grading, or placement. The law applies only to public school districts, not to private schools.
A separate 2025 law signed by Gov. Kevin Stitt limits virtual instruction in public school districts to 12 hours per academic year. That restriction also does not apply to private schools. Stitt hosted Alpha's Texas conference for the National Governors Association in December 2025 and has promoted AI in education.
Alpha School opened its first campus in Austin, Texas, in 2014 and has since expanded to six states with 12 spinoff schools. It is opening 28 new campuses in fall 2026, including the Oklahoma locations. The chain is funded by billionaire Joe Liemandt, who recently committed $1 billion to schools including Alpha.
What the Arizona and Texas precedent shows
Alpha School operates a campus in Scottsdale, Arizona, with the same $40,000 tuition and no-teacher AI model. The Arizona school uses the NWEA MAP Growth assessment up to four times per year and employs the Pomodoro technique, with 15- to 30-minute focused sessions, for AI-driven instruction. It is part of the same Cognia-accredited system.
Alpha's original Austin campus earned Cognia accreditation on June 28, 2023, after leaders sought it to ensure transferability of transcripts. A Cognia review team recommended creating a formal program to support guides' daily collaborations. Alpha implemented that recommendation using a GPT model. System-wide Cognia accreditation followed on March 31, 2025.
What research says about the model
Cognia published a community story on Alpha School that reports Alpha students consistently score in the top 1 percent nationally on MAP tests and that from 2021 to 2024, 97 percent of Alpha students who took AP exams scored 3 or above. These figures come from Alpha and are presented by Cognia as part of a partnership narrative. They have not been independently verified by a third-party research study. The Cognia review team did recommend improvements to Alpha's staff collaboration processes.
Samuel Abramovich, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo specializing in educational technology, said there is no universally recommended instructional time for students. He said tailored instruction can produce positive outcomes but that a purely differentiated model risks losing other learning opportunities. He also noted that guides essentially function as teachers and would benefit from teacher professional development, and that research on AI in education is still developing.
Student support limits
Alpha warns applicants that the school is not equipped to meet the needs of students requiring intensive behavioral, therapeutic, or one-to-one academic support. Applicants must disclose any individualized education program, 504 plan, or behavior or learning plan or risk being withdrawn.