Phil Bredesen and a member of the Nashville school board. The school's survival reflects a larger problem at the Legislature, according to Will Pinkston, a top aide to former Democratic Gov. Jeff Kwitowski, a spokesman for K12, said that Huffman did meet with school officials and had plenty of opportunity to meet personally with parents, teachers and students but never did. Huffman said he tried to meet with academic specialists, but what he got instead was a meeting with a lobbyist who "refused to acknowledge that the school had struggled."Īn official with K12 disputes Huffman's characterization. TNVA ranked dead last in terms of academic gains out of more than 1,600 schools across the state. Huffman, in his essay, said K12's lobbyists went into overdrive after the former education commissioner sounded the alarm when the school's first-year test scores came in. The company donated more than $75,000 in direct campaign contributions since 2011. Records show that K12 has spent between $285,000 and $575,000 on lobbying since 2010. K12 is one of the largest providers of online school curricula in the country. ![]() Students have performed so poorly on standardized tests that even former supporters have publicly condemned it.Ĭritics of the school say lawmakers are bowing to pressure from K12 Inc., the Herndon, Virginia-based company that operates TNVA. The school has been a disaster since it opened in 2011. ![]() Huffman, in a recent online essay, said his inability to close the school was one of his biggest failures. ![]() The effort came on the heels of withering criticism of the school by former state Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman - a longtime proponent of school choice- who called TNVA Tennessee's worst school. (AP) - The legislature's failure to shut down an academically troubled virtual school run by a for-profit corporation has left some education leaders wondering whether Tennessee lawmakers really want to fix schools or have sold out children to powerful special interests.Ī move that would close the Tennessee Virtual Academy, and ban others like it, failed this week in the legislature.
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