Topic: Virtual Schools

Virtual schools face investigation after reports on poor performance, companies profiting

Publish Date: October 24, 2018

Two U.S. Senators, Democratic Sens. Patty Murray (Washington) and Sherrod Brown (Ohio), have recently called on the Government Accountability Office to launch an investigation into the practices and policies of virtual charter schools. The request came on the same day the Center for American Progress released Profit Before Kids: An Analysis of the Performance and Financial Practices of For-Profit, Virtual Charter Schools,...

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Austin hearings on high-quality education models, virtual schools, pensions, health care, school aid

Publish Date: April 2, 2018

The Texas Legislature is not in session, but key committees are meeting and setting the stage for policy-making when lawmakers convene in regular session next January. On April 4, the Senate Education Committee will take public testimony on high-quality education models and on virtual schools. Both labels have been used at times in misleading fashion to promote assorted versions of...

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Expansion of Full-Time, Online Schooling Benefits Operators, Not Kids

Publish Date: April 10, 2017

HB 895 by Rep. Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston) would remove a longstanding cap on the expansion of full-time "virtual" schools. The bill, which is up for a hearing in the House Public Education Committee Tuesday, would deliver big benefits to private, for-profit operators, but it offers little or no educational benefit for Texas schoolchildren. There is a place for online learning...

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