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Math help for U.S. kids may come from India
Tax dollars for tutoring have been going overseas

Sunday, March 27, 2005
Scott Stephens
Plain Dealer Reporter

The failure of some American students to master math is adding up to big bucks for tutoring companies in India.

A little-known provision in the federal No Child Left Behind law allows federal taxpayer dollars to flow to online tutoring services thousands of miles and several times zones away in places like New Delhi and Calcutta. Those services typically contract with U.S. tutoring firms, which provide them the computer software and set the lesson plan.

Few would begrudge using public money to give struggling students extra help. During the last school year, more than 3,500 Ohio students who attend schools that failed to show adequate improvement took advantage of the chance to hire an outside tutor.

But some U.S. teachers decry the offering of instruction to Indian firms that pay full-time, college-educated tutors as little as $230 a month. They also complain that while the law requires teachers to be fully certified, private tutors have no such requirement.

"We are seeing teachers being laid off," said Nancy Van Meter of the American Federation of Teachers. "Given that situation, it's hard to understand why our tax dollars are being used to create jobs overseas."

The Indian tutoring companies say they are simply filling a market void by providing after-hour services some U.S. teachers don't want to be bothered with, said Anirudh Phadke, an official with New Delhi-based Career Launcher. The firm, which also serves students in the Middle East, tutors about 1,500 American students in math alone.

"We have a lot of good teachers over here willing to do this full time," Phadke said during a telephone interview. "It's a good opportunity."

That opportunity appears to be expanding. Under No Child Left Behind, schools that receive Title 1 money - federal money to help low-income children improve their math and reading skills - and fail to reach state achievement goals three years in a row are required to offer free tutoring from an outside instructor to children from low-income households. The law requires that tutoring take place after school hours.

The law also prohibits school districts that fail to meet state academic goals from using the federal money to start their own tutoring programs. Although federal education officials may soften that ban, the law still represents a boon for for-profit education companies eyeing the estimated $2 billion in public money earmarked for tutoring nationwide.

Districts and charter schools provide parents with a selection of tutoring services - called supplemental educational services - from a state-approved list of providers that includes churches, nonprofit groups and for-profit firms.

Because well-known online tutoring services, such as Sylvan Online, subcontract with firms such as Career Launcher, it's hard to say how many students are spending their money on Indian tutors. But several firms known to subcontract with tutoring services in India appear on Ohio's list of 163 approved providers.

That means students receiving the service don't always know they're being tutored by someone working in the wee hours of the morning half a world away.

"The student will be told they have a class at, say, Monday at 10 o'clock," Phadke said. "That same time will be passed on to the Indian tutor. That's how it works."