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High-Earner Families Are Ditching Traditional Schools for Life Skills and AI

People who can afford to send their grade-school kids anywhere are choosing new alternative education

By Katherine Bindley, WSJ

July 3, 2026 9:00 pm ET

High-income parents are increasingly choosing alternative K-8 schools that emphasize life skills, entrepreneurial thinking and AI-based learning.

There was nothing wrong with the Madison, N.J., public school Ankur Jain’s 11-year-old son attended: Arjan was happy and excelling academically. But Jain was intrigued by Forge Prep, a new school for fifth through eighth-graders in nearby Livingston that promised learning through real-world problem-solving, building businesses and designing products.

This appealed to Jain’s entrepreneurial side. His son could learn negotiation, sales and public speaking—tools he didn’t fully develop until his 20s.

“The future is changing,” says Jain, the president of a hedge fund. “If we’re still teaching the kids the way we used to 60, 70, 80 years ago, how are we preparing them?”

Alternative schooling is having a moment among high-income parents. Families who can afford to send their kids to the best K-8 institutions are seeking new options. They’re exploring schools that prioritize life skills and call teachers “guides” or “coaches.” Some use AI-based tutors that tailor the curriculum to the child’s individual needs.

Parents considering less traditional options say AI is poised to have significant effects on the economy, so old ways of learning may no longer make sense. (Forge Prep’s marketing materials refer to it as “built for 2040. Not 1940.”) They also say AI tutors and hands-on learning in smaller groups offer opportunities for a more individualized curriculum.

Unlike public schools, these institutions aren’t required to report metrics to the state and their relative effectiveness can be difficult to evaluate.

The Badger Den under renovation, with exposed metal studs, a wooden arched ceiling, and large windows.

The Forge Prep campus is undergoing renovation at the site of a former Catholic school in Livingston, N.J. Forge Prep

Alpha School, which focuses on K-8, though some locations go through high school, has garnered the most attention in recent years. It started in Austin, Texas, 12 years ago and added eight schools around the country in 2025, San Francisco and New York among them. This fall, nearly two dozen more are set to open, including in Palo Alto, the East Bay and Malibu, Calif. Alpha also sells home-schooling software and its skills-based curriculum.

Shaun Johnson, a venture capitalist who lives in San Francisco, plans to send his son to Alpha kindergarten. The school provides two hours of AI-based tutoring followed by interactive project-based workshops. The local tuition is $75,000 a year.

Johnson made the decision after being unhappy with the public school his family got in the local lottery. He didn’t strongly consider local standard private-school options.

“We recognize that education is likely broken the way it is and there’s going to be entrepreneurs that try to fix it,” he says. “You want someone to be able to think on their feet and navigate the world, not necessarily a recitation of facts in a particular discipline.”

Alpha’s main draw, Johnson says, is a more personalized way for his son to learn. The AI platform records students’ interactions, including how well they are paying attention. A child’s performance influences the curriculum for the coming days and weeks in what Johnson thinks of as a positive learning loop.

“It’s not AI for AI’s sake,” he says. “It’s personalization.”

High-profile fans of Alpha have included billionaire Bill Ackman. Its in-person guides are all paid six figures, according to Anna Davlantes, a spokeswoman. Remote coaches who assist with the AI software are spread out around the globe.

“Parents who can send their kids to any school are looking at alternative models to see if that’s a better fit for their child in terms of arming their kids with skills for the future,” she says. Many of the New York Alpha families work in finance, including venture capital, or are entrepreneurs, while the Bay Area ones are largely made up of people in tech-related professions, adds Davlantes.

Alpha School students on the Via Ferrata hike at Palisades Tahoe.

Alpha School students from the San Francisco campus go rock climbing at Palisades Tahoe. Alpha School

Alpha School co-founder MacKenzie Price previously told The Wall Street Journal that the school also aims to keep hot-button social issues out of its classrooms.

Variations on project-based learning go back centuries, says Caroline Hoxby, a professor at Stanford University. What’s new are hybrid programs that mix in AI.

There’s currently an awareness, especially among parents who work in tech, that AI will take the place of routine or pattern-based thinking. “They are very inclined to take on tools for their children that are not traditional tools,” says Hoxby.

Yet the effectiveness of such models is largely unknown, she says, adding, “I am not a cheerleader for any type of education for which there is negligible scientific-type empirical evidence.”

Alpha’s Davlantes says, “We have globally renowned learning scientists who help build Alpha’s model based on decades of foundational research,” adding, “They are part of a larger team of highly qualified academics behind the platform.”

An entrepreneurial or AI focus might also narrow the appeal, leading to a more homogenous student population than standard private schools, says Victor Lee, a professor with the Stanford Graduate School of Education.

And by avoiding the title “teacher,” the models can inadvertently minimize the profession, he adds.

“It does have a negative impact on recognizing the work and skills that teachers bring,” he says. “It diminishes the role and degree of professionalism that teaching requires.”

Davlantes says Alpha’s guides took a vote and opted against being called teachers.

Renzi Stone, who runs a boutique marketing strategy firm in Oklahoma City, recently started spending around $800 a month on Alpha’s at-home software platform for his son, who just finished eighth grade. Stone estimates that over the years he’s spent well over $300,000 on private education for his two kids.

He’s been happy with the culture and the community but disappointed by academic outcomes. He believes AI can make screen time far more productive for students.

“I think this is a sea-change moment in our country where we need to reimagine curriculum,” he says.

Stone’s son will do nine weeks of Alpha School tutoring this summer: He’s working to get his son’s private school to pilot the Alpha software.

A child in a yellow hard hat writes on a post-it note on a window during a Forge tour.

A child leaves a note during a Forge Prep campus tour for students and families in May. Jeff Miller/Forge Prep

Anand Sanwal, who runs a market intelligence platform and founded Forge Prep in New Jersey, says he received 600 applications for this coming fall. There will be 34 students across four grades but eventually the school will go through 12th grade with 400 total students. Once there is a graduating class, a student who starts a company and works on it full-time after graduation is eligible for a $200,000 investment from Forge.

As for Forge not reporting performance data as public schools do, Sanwal says, “There’s nothing that would suggest if we look at their metrics that things are going well.”

Tuition for the inaugural class is between $24,000 and $36,000, with 30% of students on financial aid. Next year tuition will rise to $60,000.

Sanwal says the school’s take on technology is phone free and light on Chromebooks, and all guides are former teachers. Kids will use AI for “creation not consumption.”

“The world is changing really fast,” he says. “I’m pretty sure the model the parents had when they were in school is not going to work for what’s about to happen.”