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All kids, poor or rich, need quality tutors

By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published September 19, 2006

Elena Garcia asked the parent if he had signed up his child for free tutoring.

It was a routine question. Garcia supervises a federal program that combats the impact of poverty on Pasco County students.

She knew that the family qualified for free lunch, and the child was eligible to get extra academic help. The deadline was approaching. But the parent seemed offended by the question: His child was an excellent student and participated in sports.

That recounted conversation highlights one of the problems of the tutoring program revving up in Pasco, Citrus, Hernando and other school districts around the state as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

In trying to change the way we educate children, the folks in Washington are guilty of some of the same old biases and a few new ones.

"They are presuming that kids on free and reduced lunch have to be academically disadvantaged," Garcia said.

No Child Left Behind was supposed to be President Bush's silver bullet to improve failing public schools and close the persistent educational achievement gap between white students and black, Hispanic and other minority students.

We recall hearing the president say that it's racist to believe that minority kids can't learn. We all agreed.

But this vast piece of education reform has angered educators and school administrators from California to Maine.

It turns out that No Child Left Behind is up for reauthorization in the next few years. An important congressional hearing on the tutoring program is scheduled for Monday in Washington. It's time for parents to demand that the promise of No Child Left Behind be kept.

A good place to start is with the tutoring program for students who attend struggling schools to ensure that help gets to those who need it most.

Some readers of this column might recall that I have written about this tutoring program before. I liked the idea of free tutoring for students of struggling schools until I learned that free also means a mountain of frustration for the students it's intended to help - not enough tutoring options, not enough hours, online tutoring. Some tutors are actually overseas. Unlike teachers, these private tutors don't have to be qualified.

The way this program is structured, only students who qualify for free or reduced lunch can get free tutoring.

That sends the message that only poor children need extra academic help. Also, it's voluntary, so parents of the kids who really need help don't have to accept it.

As it stands, too few students are seeking and getting help.

In Pasco, for instance, 5,000 students are eligible to participate, but unfortunately, there is only enough money to pay for 1,500 students - a few more than 700 have signed up.

Citrus students are participating for the first time this year, so it's too early to tell how many of the 400 eligible students will participate. Hernando figures were not immediately available.

In Pasco, eligible students receive $1,154 for tutoring. Companies contracted with Pasco are charging between $50 and $75 an hour per student, which amounts to less than 30 hours of tutoring. That's not nearly enough for a school year. Hernando and Citrus students receive about the same amount, although it varies.

What if instead of being wedded to private tutoring companies, the law allowed school districts to pay teachers extra to tutor students after hours?

Thankfully, more common sense and less ideology is being introduced into the debate.

For example, U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., has proposed legislation that among other things pushes to have the tutoring be "widely available and easily accessible." He also wants to allow existing afterschool programs to provide the tutoring instead of allowing private educational companies to dominate the service.

Those proposals suggest that someone has been listening to frustrated parents. It's a start.

Andrew Skerritt can be reached at 813 909-4602 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602. His e-mail address is askerritt@sptimes.com.

[Last modified September 18, 2006, 21:58:35]