Bill to Close Underperforming Virtual Schools Advances

A student completing school work at home (Photo Courtesy Tennessee Virtual Academy)

Legislation requiring the Tennessee Department of Education commissioner to close virtual schools that are falling behind in performance is one step closer to ratification.

Senate Bill 2441, sponsored by Senator Bill Powers, R-Clarksville, would mandate the closure of virtual schools that make the state’s priority list or fall “significantly below expectations” for three consecutive years under the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS) criteria that measure student growth.

School choice has been a priority for the Republican supermajority in recent years, and supporters argue this bill is about ensuring parents have high-quality choices available.

“This bill will hold public virtual schools accountable by requiring closure for consistently low-performing schools,” said Powers.

The Senate Education Committee debated the bill for nearly 90 minutes on Wednesday night before Senators Rusty Crowe, R-Johnson City; Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald; Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis; Dawn White, R-Murfreesboro; and Powers joined to advance it to the Senate floor on a 5-4 vote.

Closure Criteria Unchanged

The existing Virtual Public Schools Act, passed in 2011, allowed for the optional closure of underperforming virtual schools under the same performance criteria as Powers’ bill.

Under the legislation, a virtual school’s closure would take place at the end of a school year and would include parental notification, a freeze on new enrollees, and the withholding of student records.

The bill would additionally prevent virtual school operators subject to closure from opening new virtual schools for a five-year period.

Closures Questioned

The Senate Education Committee conversation was lengthy, as board members fired off questions at STRIDE Senior Director of Policy Sheryl Tatum, Tennessee SCORE Vice President of Policy and Government Relations Aleah Guthrie, and Tennessee Department of Education Director of Legislative Affairs Emily Cornute.

Cornute detailed the increase in popularity of virtual schools in Tennessee in recent years, citing a significant uptick post-COVID and overall enrollment increases.

Senator Mark Pody, R-Lebanon, was among the four to vote against the bill. During the discussion, he appeared dissatisfied with some of the answers he received.

“We're talking about closing (schools) and changing people's lives,” Pody said. “And I'm asking very (specifically) what the department has to do to have these things accountable. This has been going on for years, and I'm saying what happened two years ago? What happened now?”

Consistent Accountability

Guthrie outlined SCORE’s support for the bill, arguing that it will hold high expectations for public virtual schools without creating new closures.

“Virtual schools have been subject to this criteria since the legislature enacted this language in 2013, and so any school that is in existence has long been operating or was opened knowing that this is the closure criteria for a virtual school,” Guthrie said. “These are the rules of engagement for public virtual schools.”

She emphasized the importance of consistent accountability, the need for virtual schools to be held accountable for their performance, and that the bill targets only the lowest-performing virtual schools in the state, which are 12 of the 65 existing schools as of 2025. Of those 12, Powers said 50 percent were operated by either Pearson Virtual Schools or STRIDE.

“This is a growing sector, and so we want to make sure that families have great options to choose from, and there are higher-performing statewide virtual schools that students could be enrolled in,” Guthrie said.

Guthrie also made a concerted effort to dispel what she called a “troubling claim” that virtual schools serving underserved or at-risk students perform worse than schools that do. She said there is no data to support the claim because they still serve similar proportions of students with disabilities and economic disadvantages.

The House companion legislation, sponsored by Representatives Mark White, R-Memphis, and Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka, is scheduled for a vote next week in the House K-12 Subcommittee.