New York City students drawn to STEM — and artificial intelligence — may soon have a high school dedicated to “the next generation of technology professionals,” according to a Chalkbeat New York article.
But families in Manhattan’s District 2 are against the proposal for Next Generation Technology High School, a new screened admissions high school that would take the place of the small, girls-only Urban Assembly School of Business for Young Women. Next Generation would be the first city public school to focus its curriculum on AI and computer science.
Opposition to Next Generation has come mostly from families at a middle school, Lower Manhattan Community School. Parents at the school have called on the department for years to expand enrollment from grades 6-8 up to grade 12.
The Panel for Educational Policy is expected to consider the proposals for Next Generation and Business for Young Women at its April 29 meeting.
If approved, Next Generation would welcome its first class of ninth graders in the fall. (The plan to close Business for Young Women in June is not contingent on Next Generation’s approval.)
Next Generation has already held three virtual open houses.
Manhattan High Schools Superintendent Gary Beidleman introduced the idea for Next Generation Technology High School at a Feb. 25 meeting of the District 2 Community Education Council.
Beidleman said Next Generation grew out of his experience as a summer 2024 Google Education Innovation Fellow, and that Google and OpenAI are part of the planning team for the school. One of the school’s goals, he said, is to “expand pathways connected to high-growth technology careers” and provide advanced STEM and technology programming for NYC students. Next Generation also plans to offer a summer internship program with Carnegie Mellon University.
Caleb Haraguchi-Combs, founding principal and project director of Next Generation High School, said in an information session that the school would utilize Google’s new, AI-powered Skills Platform. How much of this AI-powered, AI-focused Google coursework would comprise the curriculum is still to be determined, according to the proposal’s educational impact statement.
Parents said in a letter to the Panel for Educational Policy that the proposal seemingly came out of nowhere, and families were not provided adequate engagement opportunities before its release. Panel Chair Greg Faulkner said he has received hundreds of similar letters from parents since the community learned of the incoming proposal in late February.
A petition in support of the school, created by the Next Generation’s founding principal and program director on March 8, had under 100 signatures at the time of publishing.
Next Generation’s proposal comes amid broader debate over artificial intelligence in schools.
The school was initially marketed as an “AI school,” though DOE officials later clarified that students would learn about artificial intelligence rather than be taught by it.
“Students need to be creators, not consumers, of technology,” Beidleman said at the Feb. 25 meeting. “Lessons learned from the past show us that new tech in place creates an opportunity.”
Some parents have argued that broad use of an AI platform in public schools should not be allowed before comprehensive guidelines have been released by the city.
Greg Faulkner, who chairs the Panel for Educational Policy, says he first learned of the proposal after receiving Next Generation’s interest from last month. “I have two major hesitations with this: We don’t know what kind of AI involvement there will be. The development team has not provided a playbook for how that will look,” Faulkner says. “And in reading the response letters from District 2 parents, I see that proper engagement and process was not done.”
At a District 2 town hall on March 5, Chancellor Kamar Samuels said the Education Department expects to release AI guidance in the coming weeks and will provide a 45-day window for community feedback once it’s published.
In the city, five Community Education Councils have passed resolutions calling for a two-year moratorium on artificial intelligence use in schools. But calls for broad AI guidelines implemented at the city level are nothing new; a proposed expansion of an AI-powered reading program was halted in 2024 after former Comptroller Brad Lander called for a citywide playbook.
“I think the question of teacher capacity and teacher shortages, the research on kids and AI, is still nascent, and the DOE’s lack of its own AI policy leads me to question the timing of any AI school,” says a parent at Lower Manhattan Community.
Chalkbeat New York
