Tutoring firms stand to gain from ailing schools

Martin Wolk Chief economics correspondent • Profile • E-mail

The 3-year-old No Child Left Behind Act has opened the door for hundreds of companies to grab part of a rapidly growing market in private tutoring services for low-income students, paid for by federal tax dollars.

Poorly performing schools are expected to funnel more than $900 million to private tutoring services in the coming school year under the landmark federal law, up from about $700 million in the year just ended.

The money, an average of $1,200 per student served, is going both to for-profit and non-profit service providers, including big publicly held companies like Educate Inc. and The Princeton Review, non-profits like the Boys & Girls Club of America, local mom ‘n’ pop  companies and faith-based organizations.

The tutoring program, one of several ways the 2001 law has created opportunities for private enterprise to profit from public education, has drawn scrutiny in recent months in part because of rules that require local authorities to give plenty of leeway to the private tutoring outfits.

“The Department of Education has been pretty clear in the guidance they have issued that they want to have as few restrictions as possible so they will have more providers  available to offer services,” said Diane Rentner, deputy director of the Center for Education Policy, an advocacy group.

As a result, more than 2,600 providers have been approved to offer tutoring services in one or more states under the program, up from about 1,600 last year, according to federal officials.

With so many companies offering services in a program that is not yet well-understood, there have been a few bumps in the road as the tutoring program has ramped up rapidly over the past two years.

In Chicago, the local school district took the unusual step of ejecting one of the nation’s largest providers of tutoring services from seven schools after the company was unable to provide sufficient materials and tutors. The incident gained some notoriety because on the day a local reporter visited, students in the program were being treated to a showing of “Garfield: The Movie,” said Beth Swanson, director of after-school programs for Chicago Public Schools.

In some rural districts, administrators have complained about a lack of available tutors. Elsewhere parents have complained about overly aggressive marketing of private tutoring services.

But in most districts, more aggressive marketing probably would be welcomed by the low-income families who are the intended beneficiaries of the program, known as Supplemental Educational Services.

Last year, only about 226,000 students received the private tutoring services out of 2 million eligible students, although the number is expected to rise sharply this year as the program gets rolled out in more school districts.

Under the program, schools that fail to make “adequate yearly progress” toward achieving state math and reading standards for three straight years are required to set aside 20 percent of their federal Title I money for after-school tutoring. Title I, reserved for schools with a significant population of poor children, is the biggest federal education program for grades K-12.

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