How AI Is Helping Education Companies in Newark Cut Costs and Improve Efficiency

Newark has become a national focal point for classroom AI because Newark Public Schools piloted Khanmigo at First Avenue and approved a data‑sharing agreement with Khan Academy as it considers a districtwide rollout - the pilot was offered at no cost and Khanmigo pricing starts at about $35 per student with discounts - making Newark a real test case for whether AI can personalize learning while reducing tutoring costs; statewide action amplifies that role, with New Jersey publishing AI guidance for schools and the NJSBA issuing a model AI policy to help districts balance innovation with privacy and academic integrity, even as reporting highlights a $12 million plan to add more than 7,000 AI cameras to district buildings that raises tradeoffs between safety and student privacy.

Read the Chalkbeat Newark report on the Khanmigo pilot, NJ Spotlight's coverage of state guidance and surveillance, and the NJSBA model AI policy for boards.

Bootcamp	Length	Early bird cost	Registration
AI Essentials for Work	15 Weeks	$3,582	Register for the AI Essentials for Work bootcamp

“could use improvement.”

Khanmigo is being used in Newark to stretch scarce tutoring time into near‑continuous, low‑cost support: teachers describe it as a “co‑teacher” that lets self‑directed students move ahead while adults pull small groups, and district leaders point to real‑time reports that help form targeted interventions rather than relying solely on one‑to‑one human tutors - a strategy detailed in the New York Times coverage of the Khanmigo pilot in Newark (New York Times coverage of the Khanmigo pilot in Newark).

Newark's phased rollout is backed by a data‑sharing agreement and a recent $25,000 Gates Foundation grant to expand Khanmigo in North Ward schools; access was offered at no cost during the initial pilot and Chalkbeat reports district pricing for broader use starts at about $35 per student with discounts for high free/reduced‑price lunch populations, which makes scalable AI tutoring a plausible route to cut per‑student tutoring expense (Chalkbeat report on Gates grant and Khanmigo pricing and rollout).

Khan Academy materials further note classroom prep and admin savings - so the practical “so what” for Newark education providers is clear: a single district contract can multiply tutoring reach across entire schools while preserving teacher time for high‑needs students.

Sample North Ward schools using Khanmigo
First Avenue Elementary
Abington Avenue
Elliott Street
Luis Muñoz Marin
Sussex Avenue

“could use improvement.”

Newark school leaders aiming to speed decisions and free staff time can use K‑12‑specific data platforms to “talk to your data,” turning sprawling attendance, assessment, behavior, and SEL records into immediate, actionable answers; PowerSchool's Connected Intelligence builds a secure, district‑specific data lake and high‑performance replication so near‑real‑time queries are possible, while PowerBuddy for Data Analysis lets non‑technical educators ask natural‑language questions and get visual drilldowns - examples include asking “Which incoming fourth graders were not proficient on the state ELA test?” and receiving visuals tied to attendance and intervention history so teams can act in the same PLC meeting rather than chase spreadsheets.

These tools reduce reliance on a few “data wizards,” cut analyst backlogs, and help Newark districts prioritize interventions and resources faster without moving student data offsite - see PowerSchool's AI overview, the blog on building data‑driven cultures, and the PowerBuddy product announcement for details and governance guidance.

Feature	Immediate Impact for Newark Schools
Natural‑language data queries (PowerBuddy)	Faster decisions in meetings; fewer analyst tickets
Connected Intelligence DaaS	Unified, near‑real‑time data for districtwide planning
Predictive risk analytics	Earlier, targeted interventions to reduce failure and dropout risk

“PowerBuddy for Data Analysis streamlines the process of building out data requests for our programmer analysts. By learning over time, PowerBuddy significantly increases our efficiency in handling these requests.” - Michael Marassa, CTO, New Trier Township 203

Newark is piloting AI not just for tutoring but for back‑office automation and building safety, a mix that can cut teachers' paperwork while raising privacy tradeoffs: district leaders used COVID relief funds to underwrite a roughly $12 million project to install more than 7,700 AI‑enabled cameras districtwide, a step that community advocates worry could expand surveillance even as schools add on‑demand tutoring and lesson‑planning features from tools like Khanmigo (Chalkbeat report on Newark AI cameras and Khanmigo rollout; NJ Spotlight News coverage of AI security system concerns and community privacy issues).

At the same time, district and classroom AI can reclaim large chunks of time - McKinsey estimates 20–40% of a teacher's hours (about 13 hours weekly) are tasks that could be automated - letting educators run targeted small groups and follow data‑driven intervention plans faster (TEACH Magazine analysis of AI time savings and administrative automation for teachers).

The practical “so what” for Newark education providers: automation can multiply scarce human attention into measurable minutes saved per class, but procurement and rollout must pair efficiency goals with strict privacy, governance, and community engagement to avoid unintended harms.

“It will save them time, surface new teaching materials, and spark deeper classroom engagements.”

Higher‑education initiatives across the region are turning AI preparation into a direct pipeline for Newark's workforce: NJIT's Learning and Development Initiative codified an eight‑domain Workforce Readiness Model and offers an inexpensive, stackable AI Literacy Microcredential (10 self‑paced, ~2‑hour courses bundled for $200) plus an AI for Educators badge - practical, employer‑oriented pathways that align with national calls for AI skills (NJIT Workforce Readiness Model and AI microcredentials).

Nearby universities are pairing curriculum changes with faculty development so graduates arrive job‑ready: the University of Delaware's AI for Teaching and Learning Working Group is building seminars, a graduate AI certificate, and campus tools that turn research into classroom practice, creating talent employers can hire from Newark neighborhoods (University of Delaware AI for Teaching and Learning initiatives).

Rutgers' OTEAR and continuing‑education teams provide practical faculty workshops and “critical AI literacy” guidance that make course upgrades feasible without long lead times, while national analysis warns employers increasingly prefer AI‑literate hires - so the concrete payoff for Newark education companies is immediate: low‑cost microcredentials plus campus certificate pipelines produce verifiable, hireable AI skills at scale, shortening recruitment cycles and lowering training spend.

Program	Provider	Format / Cost
AI Literacy Microcredential	NJIT LDI	10 self‑paced courses (~2 hrs each), bundled for $200
AI for Educators Microcredential	NJIT LDI	3 courses, self‑paced, $120
AI graduate certificate	University of Delaware	New graduate certificate supported by AICoE (fall launch)

“AI is the single most powerful and disruptive technology of the 21st century - and we are only dimly aware of its potential.” - Matthew Kinservik, UD vice provost for faculty affairs

Funding in Newark shows a clear split between one‑time capital buys and recurring, per‑student investments: much of the AI work has been underwritten with federal COVID relief (ARP) dollars - used to fund both tutoring pilots and a districtwide surveillance upgrade that moved from a $12M installation contract to a reported $17.5M projected price tag and required a federal extension past the September spending deadline (NJ Spotlight report on Newark AI camera surveillance project).

By contrast, scalable tutoring like Khanmigo has been priced in district reporting at roughly $35 per student, a subscription‑style cost that can slash per‑student tutoring spend while multiplying reach; the surveillance plan covers some 7,700 cameras (about one camera per five students) under a $12M contract with Turn‑Key Technologies (Chalkbeat coverage of the $12M AI camera contract in Newark).

Practical ROI math for Newark education companies therefore favors solutions that pair measurable teacher time saved (estimates suggest 20–40% of administrative hours could be automated) with clear FERPA/COPPA governance - download a district‑level AI safety evaluation checklist to prove compliance when pitching districts (District AI safety evaluation checklist for school district compliance).

“In no way shape or form will this result in an invasion of privacy of anyone's students, staff, or otherwise.” - James Wilson

Newark's push to adopt AI exposes four linked challenges that education companies and district leaders must manage: student privacy (facial recognition, cloud storage, and vendor access raise real risks), equity (surveillance and automated disciplinary alerts can disproportionately affect students of color), evidence (many safety and proctoring tools lack strong proof they reduce harm and courts have recognized constitutional risks from invasive school monitoring), and facilities (Newark's century‑old buildings, asbestos abatement, and cabling difficulties have delayed installation and stretched timelines).

The practical “so what” is concrete: the district's plan for more than 7,000 AI‑enabled cameras - roughly one camera per five students - has moved from a $12M installation contract toward a reported $17.5M projected price tag and required a federal extension to spend expiring ARP funds, showing how procurement, infrastructure, and legal exposure can quickly inflate costs and community backlash.

Vendors and districts should therefore pair pilot results and FERPA/COPPA‑level vendor vetting with transparent community engagement and clear opt‑out or minimization policies before scaling surveillance or classroom AI (NJ Spotlight report on the delayed $17.5M camera project, Chalkbeat coverage of AI surveillance and student‑privacy concerns, CDT analysis of legal harms from invasive school surveillance).

Metric	Value
Cameras planned	~7,000+ (≈1 per 5 students)
Contract / projected cost	$12M contract → reported $17.5M projection
Funding issue	ARP dollars expiring; federal extension required

Security experts warn AI-enabled systems could invade privacy or misidentify items or people without safeguards and policies.

Start every Newark rollout with clear governance, a vendor‑safe pilot, and measurable success metrics: convene a Gen‑AI leadership team and values statement (CoSN's K‑12 Gen AI Readiness Checklist) to align executive, technical, legal, and instructional owners, require vendor DPAs and FERPA/COPPA proof during procurement, and keep contracts that allow turning AI features off if terms change.

Use a two‑stage evaluation - fast screening then deep dive - then run a structured pilot scored by teachers and technologists with SMART outcomes and a rubric for instructional impact, equity, and accessibility; SchoolAI recommends adding ~50% to vendor time estimates for integration and training to avoid rollout delays.

Protect data and interoperability by following 1EdTech's AI Preparedness prompts for data governance, open‑standards integration (OneRoster, LTI, Edu‑API), and

“walled garden” test environments

and make community engagement and transparent privacy notices part of the launch.

For sales and proposals, include a district‑level AI safety evaluation checklist up front to speed procurement reviews and prove FERPA/COPPA/SOC2 compliance when pitching Newark districts.

Checklist Area	Immediate Action for Newark
Governance & Leadership	Form Gen‑AI team, draft values & success metrics (CoSN)
Privacy & Vendor Vetting	Require DPAs, FERPA/COPPA evidence, safety checklist before pilot
Pilot, Training & ROI	Two‑stage pilot with teacher champions; budget +50% time for training (SchoolAI)
Technical & Data	Use open standards and “walled garden” testbeds (1EdTech)

CoSN K-12 Gen AI Readiness Checklist for District Leadership | 1EdTech AI Preparedness Checklist for Education | District-level AI Safety Evaluation Checklist for Newark

First Avenue Elementary's Khanmigo pilot has become Newark's visible proof‑of‑concept: teachers used the AI tutor to scaffold classroom questions (the New York Times profiled a third‑grade lesson), district leaders won a $25,000 Gates Foundation grant to expand the tool in North Ward schools, and a Bill Gates visit in May 2024 highlighted the school's blended use of Khan Academy resources and Khanmigo as a lesson‑planning and student‑support tool; district reporting shows Khanmigo began in grades 5–8 and expanded into grades 3–8, access was offered at no cost during the pilot, and district pricing for wider rollout starts at about $35 per student - facts that make the “so what?” concrete: a single district subscription can scale near‑continuous tutoring across dozens of schools while freeing teachers for small‑group instruction (see the New York Times coverage of the pilot, Chalkbeat's report on the Gates grant and pricing, and Khan Academy's Good Morning America feature inside First Avenue).

Pilot detail	Value
Pilot site	First Avenue Elementary (North Ward)
Gates visit	May 2024 (district press release)
Initial grades	Grades 5–8 (expanded to 3–8)
District pricing (reported)	≈ $35 per student / year

“could use improvement.”

Newark's experience shows a clear, practical tradeoff: subscription AI tutoring (district pricing reported at roughly $35 per student) can scale near‑continuous, targeted support across thousands of students and free teachers to run high‑impact small groups - potentially reclaiming an estimated 20–40% of administrative hours (about 13 hours weekly) that McKinsey‑type analyses flag as automatable - while one‑time capital choices like the ~7,000 AI cameras have pushed a $12M contract toward a reported $17.5M projection and required extensions of expiring ARP dollars, highlighting procurement and equity risks that require community engagement and robust governance (see the Gates Foundation's analysis of AI's equity potential and Chalkbeat's reporting on Newark's rollout).

For Newark education companies and local workforce builders, the actionable takeaway is twofold: design offerings that prove clear teacher‑time savings and FERPA/COPPA/SOC2 compliance up front, and invest in local AI literacy so districts can evaluate vendors rapidly - skills taught in applied programs such as the AI Essentials for Work bootcamp.

That combination - measurable time saved, transparent governance, and on‑the‑ground skills - determines whether AI delivers sustainable cost savings and improved outcomes for Newark students.

Metric	Value
Khanmigo reported price	≈ $35 per student
Cameras planned	~7,000+
Camera contract / projection	$12M → reported $17.5M
Newark district budget (2025‑26)	$1.57 billion
Teacher hours automatable	20–40% (≈13 hrs/week)

“It will save them time, surface new teaching materials, and spark deeper classroom engagements.”