Flexibility on Tutoring Pleases Districts, Worries Industry

$800 million in set-asides may be freed by waivers

The U.S. Department of Education’s plan to grant states broad flexibility under the No Child Left Behind Act will free up as much as $800 million in money school districts now must set aside for tutoring students, but may mark a significant financial blow to an education industry that has grown up around serving low-performing schools.

Somewhere in the middle of this policy debate, an estimated 600,000 students nationwide, at least this school year, are taking advantage of free tutoring from providers of their choice because they go to schools that have failed to hit their academic goals under the law for at least two years in a row.

As states seeking waivers from provisions of the NCLB law work to design their own accountability systems, they will be free to craft interventions for 15 percent of their lowest-performing schools—leaving the role of tutoring as...