Harvard Graduate Launches AI-Powered, Tuition-Free School in Cobb County to Prepare Students for an AI-Driven Workforce

(Featured photo from China Cardriche Clements, M.Ed‘s LinkedIn, shows Cobb County Board of Education meeting) 

Every night from 8 to 10 p.m., China Cardriche-Clements, M.Ed closes out her day with a deep dive into the latest AI tools. You’d think with that commitment, she’d be an engineer or a technologist. But for Cardriche-Clements, her time with AI tools is all about the future of education. 

Cardriche-Clements left her Wall Street career to pursue her passion for teaching. In that time, she watched AI transform from a novelty into something that is actively competing with her students for their futures. The question that drives her today is a simple one: if technology is evolving this fast, what happens to kids whose schools are not evolving? 

That question drove the Cobb County native and Harvard graduate to build something entirely new in the local education landscape. The Cobb County Board of Education approved her concept for Power Public Schools earlier this month. Set to open in fall 2027, the school will be tuition-free and offer a personalized, AI-powered learning environment designed to prepare students not just for college, but for a workforce that looks very different from the one we know today. 

An Educator’s View 

Cardriche-Clements grew up in the South Cobb community, moving through traditional public schools before completing the Campbell High School IB (International Baccalaureate ) program. She went on to study economics and applied mathematics at Harvard University. 

After working as an analyst for Goldman Sachs, she joined Teach for America, relocated to Texas, and helped several of her students gain admission to Ivy League universities. She later became a charter school principal. When she began talking with parents back home in Cobb County, two concerns kept surfacing: students were behind in math and reading after COVID-19, and they were graduating high school without practical skills.

That led to her creating the backbone of what will ultimately become Power Public Schools. 

“Our long-term goal is college, career, and life preparedness — simultaneously,” she said. “We’re really trying to break the traditional school model.”

About The School 

Power Public Schools will initially serve approximately 100 students in grades 6 and 7. To start, the school will require around six teachers. Plans include adding one grade level each year over its five-year charter term. This is the first locally approved charter school in the county in over a decade. 

The academic model centers on AI-powered personalized learning, with students working on two to three targeted skills per day across math, science, social studies, and English.

Beyond core academics, the school will emphasize entrepreneurship, financial literacy, leadership, public speaking, and critical thinking around information and misinformation in the age of AI. 

Afternoons are reserved for passion projects and community engagement, Cardriche-Clements told Hypepotamus. 

Building Education With AI 

Cardriche-Clements didn’t just design a school around AI. She actually used AI to build it. With only six weeks to complete her charter petition, she built a team of AI agents to handle fundraising, recruiting board members, writing the petition, finding facilities, and marketing. 

“In four weeks, all of the goals that I had were accomplished,” she said. “I started to reflect — I built 11 employees for $150 a month.”

Her urgency is rooted in something larger than efficiency, and something that drives her educational work.

“Kids [are] going to be directly competing with AI and robots for entry-level jobs,” she said. “We’re going to empower kids to build with AI. Not just to prompt, but truly build and create to solve community problems.”