Critics question billion-dollar tutoring program
Published: Sunday, Jul. 28, 2013 - 12:00 am | Page 1A
Community college student Ernesto Fajardo was looking for a seasonal job two years ago when a friend told him about an opening at a federally subsidized tutoring company.
After passing a background check, Fajardo, then 20, began helping struggling Sacramento students who qualified for free tutoring under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
He said he quickly realized something was amiss with the company, which struggled financially and ultimately stopped paying him.
"They didn't give us any training," said Fajardo, who lives in Elk Grove. "They called to make sure we would turn in our paperwork. Other than that, they didn't care."
Yet this was a company that charged California school districts millions of dollars as part of a federally funded tutoring mandate called Supplemental Educational Services. Proponents of the SES program, which awards about $1,500 in tutoring to students at low- performing schools, call