House Bill 1468: Virtual Education

Emily Sass is the policy director for Next Generation Texas at the Texas Public Policy Founda- tion. Emily has researched education policy topics such as school finance, teacher compensation, expanded family opportunities, and virtual education.

A year ago, virtual education was a niche offering in Texas public education, serving fewer than 1% of Texas students. However, the past year’s pandemic-related closures have plunged the nation and state into an extended experiment in emer- gency remote education. The Texas Legislature now has an opportunity to update state policy on virtual and hybrid educa- tion to encourage a more robust, resilient education landscape that both empowers districts to create programs that serve the needs of their students and empowers students with the ability to select the virtual offerings that will meet their needs.