In the near future, I plan to introduce legislation that would prohibit a charter authorizer (i.e. PDE or a school district) from considering an application to renew or create a charter/cyber charter school that would rely on artificial intelligence (AI) as the primary delivery system of instruction to students.

In late 2024, a group of individuals associated with the 2hr Learning from Austin, Texas applied to the PA Department of Education and the School District of Lancaster to create a cyber charter school and a charter school that asserted it could ensure student mastery of academic content in 2 hours of daily instruction leverage artificial intelligence. The rejected applications proposed to replace teachers with AI, and only using a limited number of human employees, known as “guides,” to provide additional support but not direct instruction.

The consideration of these charter applications required both PDE and SDoL to commit an exorbitant amount of time to evaluate the applications before they were ultimately rejected. I believe students deserve certified teachers to provide direct instruction.  That is why I’m proposing legislation that would prohibit consideration of AI-driven charter and cyber charter applications to protect:

1. Students from unproven instructional practices.
2. PDE and school districts from having to commit employee time and resources to evaluate these applications.
3. Taxpayers’ money from those manipulating the law for their own profit at the expense of our students.

If you would like to cosponsor this legislation, please sign on.