In this live episode of Class Disrupted, recorded at the ASU + GSV Summit, Netflix founder Reed Hastings joined me and Diane Tavenner again to discuss Reed’s decades-long journey through various chapters of education reform culminating in his vision for how AI will profoundly reshape learning and schooling. Reed reflected on the slow progress and setbacks of past education initiatives, explored the transformative potential of individualized AI-powered tutoring, shared his ambitious global efforts to expand educational access, and emphasized the urgency and promise of harnessing AI for accelerated, mastery-based learning and global impact. A big message that Diane and I found heartening? That Reed is now with us that the traditional classroom is the problem needing to be reinvented—or disrupted. Reed shared what he believes this means for edtech entrepreneurs toward the end of the show.
Michael Horn
Remember how much fun it was to have Reed Hastings join us on Class Disrupted in the beginning of the season to dish on AI and education? So much fun that the ASU + GSV Summit said, why don’t you invite him back and let’s do it again. So that’s what we did. Six months later, Diane Tavenner and I welcomed Reed Hastings live on stage at the ASU + GSV Summit to talk AI, his different chapters in education, lessons he’s learned, and where he thinks the puck is going. Enjoy all of that on this episode of Class Disrupted live from the ASU + GSV Summit and sponsored by the Learner Studio.
Michael Horn
Welcome everyone to the Class Disrupted podcast. This is our seventh season doing it. Normally we are disembodied voices on a screen talking with each other and a guest, but tonight we’ve got a live audience and we want to thank the ASU + GSV Summit and all of the amazing staff that has put this on. Huge thanks for all of them. Please. And you are all here to make a lot of noise and make this fun, right? Diane?
Diane Tavenner
Indeed. That’s what we want, is a spirited conversation.
Michael Horn
So who do we’ve got on tap?
Diane Tavenner
Well, tonight, Michael, we have an incredible guest, someone we’ve talked to before, but it is time to do it again. We have Reed Hastings with us. And I think most people know Reed from Netflix. A lot of people know that he spent time in education. What you might not know is that for the last year, Reed’s been on the board of Anthropic. He’s done a deep, deep dive in AI, the recent version, and 40 years ago earned a master’s in AI.
Michael Horn
So Reed, you’ve also had a long set of experiences with education over the years. You were Peace Corps member, teaching maths 40 some odd years ago, I think. And 20 some odd years ago, you were the chair of the California State Board of Education. A testing period, no Child Left Behind. You had this guy named Roy Romer in Los Angeles as the superintendent for some seven years. What did you learn from that period of time working in education?
Leadership changes in education systems
Reed Hastings
Well, that was a time of great hope. We had no Child Left Behind, Reading First, high school exit exam. We had an accountability system and I was really an administrator of that on the State Board of Education. And we worked hard on all the technical details and there was some real progress. And as you mentioned, Roy Romer was very successful as superintendent. He made it seven years in LA Unified as superintendent, set a record for that and put in a lot of great programs that really raised scores and achievement, learning. And the tragic thing was the next five years after that, I watched it all get dismantled, independent of its results. It sort of, you know, politically wasn’t in favor.
New administrations elected, they are like, get rid of the old guy stuff and let’s put in different stuff. And so that was true at the school district level and that was true at the state level. And it really woke me up to the hero syndrome we have. And whether it’s Tom Pazant’s great work in Boston now getting dismantled or Houston, Mike Miles is the hero today. And you know, watch what will happen in five or 10 years from now, because that’s where Rod Page was so great 40 years ago. Of course there was Joel Klein in New York that so many people worked hard on. So we see this cycle of rise and fall. And I have to say, for all the work that I did and all that state board, there’s very little to show for it.
