Why Virtual Schools Are Not the Answer

I oppose fully virtual schools for several reasons. 

First, learning is social — not solitary. Children develop academically and emotionally through conversation, collaboration, debate, hands-on inquiry, feedback, and relationships. A virtual school replaces all of that with isolated screen time and digital worksheets that are often test-prep driven.

Second, virtual schools increase mental health risks. The research is clear. Excessive screen time and social isolation increase rates of anxiety, depression, and disengagement. Young people need human connection and supportive communities, not isolation at a laptop.

Third, virtual schools tend to widen inequities. Students who are economically disadvantaged, English learners, experiencing disability, without broadband, and without home support are all disproportionately harmed. Virtual schools privilege the children who need the least support and abandon those who need the most.

Fourth, virtual schools undermine local schools and local control. Virtual schools, drain funding from neighborhood schools, shift resources to private vendors and corporations, weaken oversight, and eliminate the community-anchoring role of public schools. Texas can’t afford to defund our public system through privatized online alternatives.

Finally, virtual schools tend to support completion, not learning. Most virtual programs rely on automated grading, standardized test prep, compliance-based metrics and not real mastery, thinking, or creativity. If our goal is deeper learning, virtual schools move us backward, not forward.

I believe technology has a role in education but replacing schools with fully virtual, online programs is harmful for students, inequitable for families, and fiscally irresponsible for Texas. Online school is not the same as online tools. Technology can support learning, extend opportunity, and enrich classrooms. But a fully virtual education system is fundamentally incompatible with what we know about child development, cognitive science, mental health, and equitable learning. We should therefore ensure that in-person schools are the foundation of our public education system and invest in people, relationships, and learning rather than in contracts with online vendors who promise a digital solution to all our problems.

➡️ Read more about my position on Texas education issues: https://www.victorsampson.org/issues-and-positions

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