A North Carolina Senate education bill would direct more than $10 million in recurring state funding to Khan Academy for a statewide AI tutoring program, making the nonprofit the sole provider for participating school districts without a competitive bidding process.
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That’s despite the fact that Khan Academy’s own founder says the AI tutoring program has not made the impact he had hoped for.
In an April interview with Chalkbeat, Khan Academy founder Sal Khan acknowledged the company’s AI tutoring tool, Khanmigo, had not met early expectations for classroom use. “For a lot of students, it was a non-event,” he said. “They just didn’t use it much.”
Neither the bill’s primary sponsor, Sen. Michael Lee (R-New Hanover), nor Khan Academy immediately responded to NC Newsline’s request for comment.
an omnibus education bill scheduled for its first committee hearing Wednesday, would create a state AI Academic Support Program and provide the funding to run it.
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Under the proposal, participating districts would use state funds to purchase Khanmigo, which is designed to help teachers with lesson planning and answer student questions about coursework. Funding would be distributed based on enrollment in grades 6 through 12. Districts that opt in would review the program each year before deciding whether to renew contracts.
This isn’t the first time Senate Republican leaders have pushed the program this session. A similar proposal, , filed in 2025, would have provided $15 million for Khanmigo. That measure had bipartisan sponsorship in the Senate, but never received a hearing.
The proposal comes as lawmakers across the country continue exploring how artificial intelligence can be used in classrooms. K-12 students using Khanmigo increased from about 400,000 in the 2023-24 school year to roughly 700,000 in 2024-25. The figure is expected to reach 1 million in 2025-26, the company’s chief learning officer told K-12 Dive last year.
Beyond the Khanmigo proposal, the 25-page bill includes more funding for Advanced Teaching Roles, a teacher apprenticeship program, and an increased oversight of school district finances.
It would also require districts to report chronic absenteeism rate to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.
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