In Controversy and Success, Tutoring Company Dominates
Enlargephoto by: Douglas Young
This is the third story in a series on how the state spent millions tutoring its poorest students — and has little to show for it. Find the first story here and the second storyhere.
When two of Marcos Sifuentes’ children received free laptops from a tutoring program through their San Antonio middle school, the family purchased wireless access in their house for the first time.
Sifuentes added an internet hotspot to his cellphone plan so they could continue their lessons. But when his son and daughter tried to log on to the online tutoring program, they got an error message. He called Tutors with Computers, the company that offered the program, and was told his school district would no longer pay for the service.
His children are among those who will no longer receive tutoring through a 2001 No Child Left Behind Act provision that required struggling schools to set aside a portion of their federal funding to pay for after-school tutoring.
After years of complaints from school districts and few academic improvements, and with the approval of a federal waiver, the program is shutting down in Texas. Among the companies that began operating in the state after the program launched, few offer a better window into the obstacles to the federal program’s success than the company that served Sifuentes