Federal Tutoring Program Is Deeply Flawed

An unregulated and unproven NCLB tutoring program

By Joan Jacobson

Imagine a federally funded program that provides academic assistance to poor children, pays private vendors millions of dollars to hire tutors with questionable experience, gives them autonomy to choose their hourly pay rates and pupil-teacher ratios, and accepts the vendors' unconfirmed "self-evaluation" as evidence of academic improvement, a crucial condition for staying in the program.

Imagine understaffed local school districts saddled with the job of spending precious Title I funds to pay thousands of invoices from these private companies, sometimes with only a child's initials on a time sheet to prove a tutor showed up.

Now imagine this program is part of the No...