NYC has dropped plans to open a new artificial intelligence–focused public high school in Lower Manhattan after weeks of backlash from parents who said the project would turn students into "guinea pigs" for untested technology and a rushed experiment in school reform.
Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels halted the proposal on Monday, just days before the city's Panel for Educational Policy was scheduled to vote on it.
The school, to be called Next Generation Technology High School, was supposed to open this fall in a building at 26 Broadway and become the city's first campus centered on artificial intelligence and other advanced tech fields, according to Yahoo News.
In an email to panel members, Samuels said he was withdrawing the item from the agenda but stressed that conversations about technology and school admissions would continue in partnership with communities.
Reversal of Plans for AI-Focused High School
The reversal came hours before multiple protests were planned outside the Department of Education offices and City Hall. Parent groups had organized rallies and online campaigns urging city officials to slow down the rollout of A.I. in classrooms and to stop using one school as a large-scale trial site.
Many parents criticized the school as an experiment built around tools that are still poorly understood and lightly regulated. At public hearings, families warned that students would become "guinea pigs" for unproven teaching software, automated tutoring systems, and data-hungry platforms run by private vendors.
They questioned how much student information would be collected, how long it would be stored, and whether algorithms might deepen racial and economic bias in admissions and discipline.
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Advocacy groups, including coalitions calling for a two-year moratorium on A.I. in New York City schools, said the proposed high school showed how quickly companies could gain influence in the classroom, Route Fifty reported.
Critics pointed to promotional language for the new school that closely mirrored corporate marketing, including promises of "special access to technology industry mentors" and certifications tied to big tech firms.
Opposition also grew over the school's "screened" admissions process, which would have used grades and other performance metrics in a district already divided over selective programs.
Some parents argued that creating a high-profile A.I. school with competitive entry would drain resources and motivate students from other neighborhood schools.
Others said the Education Department had failed to do basic community outreach before announcing the plan, fueling suspicion that key decisions were being made behind closed doors, as per the New York Times.
The A.I. high school proposal became a flash point in a wider fight over technology in the nation's largest school system, which recently issued its first guidance on classroom use of artificial intelligence and is facing demands for strict limits.
For now, city officials say there are no immediate plans to revive the school, but they have signaled that A.I. will remain a major focus of future curriculum and policy debates in New York City.
