THE TEXAS TRIBUNE
Tutoring Company Draws Fire as State Pulls Back Services
By MORGAN SMITH
When two of Marcos Sifuentes’s children received free laptops from a tutoring program through their San Antonio middle school, the family signed up for wireless access at home for the first time. Mr. Sifuentes added an Internet hot spot to his cellphone plan so they could continue their lessons.
But when his son and his daughter tried to log on to the online tutoring program, they received 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.
Mr. Sifuentes’s children are among those who will no longer receive tutoring services through a 2001 No Child Left Behind Act provision that required struggling schools to set aside a portion of their federal financing 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 began, few offer a better window into the