Tennessee Virtual Academy now has 3,200 students around the state in grades K-8. Image courtesy Nevit Dilmen/Wikimedia Commons

Virtual education appears to be the future, even for the youngest students. School districts are offering classes online. Cyber schools – many of them run by the same for-profit company – are popping up all over the country. But student test scores have fallen short.

Even some Republican leaders feel burned after passing legislation in 2011 that paved the way for the Tennessee Virtual Academy, which now enrolls 3,200 students.

“I think that’s what happens when you have reform,” says Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey. “You have some hits and you have some misses.”

K12 Inc. is the company that has made big business out of online schools. Officials from the Virginia headquarters have been asked to come to attend legislative hearings in Nashville twice in as many weeks.

While K12 representatives tried to walk members of the House and Senate education committees through the company’s curriculum, they did have to respond to tough questioning.

“I like video games as much as the next person,” Senator Stacey Campfield of Knoxville said, stopping the presentation. “I had some questions about some of the scoring. My understanding is the scores were very, very low.”

A mere 16 percent of K12’s Tennessee students were proficient in math.

Company officials say they expect significant improvement next year and that they are giving students extra help, particularly in math.

“One thing that we have seen is that the longer students are enrolled in our virtual school settings, the better they do on state tests,” said Megan Henry, K12 deputy vice president.

The K12 Recipe

Henry pointed lawmakers to Colorado, where K12 has a more established program. But it’s hardly a shining example. After nine years, only half of the Colorado students were making the grade.

K12 has tried to say as little in possible while in the state, turning from reporters who ask for more explanation of abysmal test results.

In other states, lawsuits have been filed. Former employees in Pennsylvania accuse K12 of manipulating enrollment and performance data to increase state funding and create higher returns for investors.

In Tennessee, K12 has a complicated organizational structure. It operates statewide, with students concentrated in urban areas of Nashville and Memphis. But the cyber school is technically part of the Union County district outside Knoxville.

The formula in Tennessee is similar to what K12 has done elsewhere – get a state law passed that allows virtual schools to operate across district lines, contract with a small system and make an enrollment push statewide.

Virtual students now outnumber traditional ones in the Union County system. The rapid enrollment jump won the district millions of dollars in additional state money.

“I don’t blame Union County as much as I blame an opportunist company like K12,” says Rep. Joe Pitts of Clarksville.

Pitts says he’s never liked the idea of putting a for-profit company in charge. And like many Democrats, he voted against the enabling legislation.

Revisiting Regulations

Now Governor Bill Haslam has proposed an enrollment cap and limiting how many students can live outside a host district. A spokesman with K12 says the company opposes any “arbitrary” caps.

But there are ardent defenders in the halls of the state capitol arguing against restrictions, like Holly Wooten of Cheatham County. All four of her kids are enrolled.

“I’m not really coming from a very political agenda,” she says. “I just want the best for my children, and I know this curriculum, this school system is what’s best for my children.”

K12 says many of its students come from homeschool backgrounds. Others have disabilities or were bullied in class.

“For those kids, this is their salvation,” says Rep. Harry Brooks, who chairs the House Education Committee and sponsored the legislation that brought the rapid expansion of virtual schools.

“Now, other kids are taking advantage of it,” he says. “There are kids in juvenile detention that are required by law to get a free public education. This is their opportunity too.”

Brooks says virtual schools should still be held to the same state standard as brick and mortar schools, and shut down or taken over after two years.

But some lawmakers are saying two years is too long to wait.