U.S. Student Tutoring Outsourced to India

A little-known and somewhat overlooked provision of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law states that schools failing to meet achievement goals must offer free tutoring from an outside instructor to children from low-income households. Federal funds are available to pay for the tutoring, however, the schools are prohibited from using the federal money to start their own tutoring programs. As such, various specialized companies, such as Sylvan Online, have contracted to provide the tutoring, particularly in math.

The situation would be just fine if it were not for one controversial aspect. The companies contracted to provide tutoring services have been subcontracting to foreign business concerns, particularly companies in India such as New Delhi-based Career Launcher. Obviously, knowledge of the practice of outsourcing tutoring has produced complaints from the teachers unions. With $2 billion set aside for tutoring, the unions are appalled that the money will be going to companies outside the U.S. and not to American teachers.

The teachers unions express a variety of complaints about tutoring being performed by foreign companies. They include concerns that the tutors are not familiar with applicable standards, that the student doesn't know the tutor is on the other side of the world, that tutors don't have to be licensed, and that there is no way to monitor the tutors. Their arguments are fairly weak if desired results are achieved on proficiency tests which remains to be determined. Strictly from an economic standpoint, hiring American teachers as tutors is not as attractive as employing Indian tutors. A college-educated, full-time Indian tutor can be hired for a mere $230 per month. Unfortunately, probably the last time a teacher in the U.S. would work full time for that amount was around 1950.

To counter the practice of outsourcing tutoring, the unions have decided that they should get into the tutoring services business. Although schools are barred from providing outside tutoring, unions are not. In New York, the Rochester Teachers Association is an approved tutoring provider and, in Ohio, the Toledo Federation of Teachers is approved. Others are progressing towards approval. The overall result is that unions will be able to compete for tutoring contracts. As an aside, having teachers unions as contractors for the school system seems somewhat like hiring your brother-in-law. It remains to be seen how well their efforts will play out.

In conclusion, teachers unions are miffed that U.S. taxpayer dollars are being sent to India to provide tutoring for low-achievers. The unions believe the money should be spent in the U.S. on teachers that are out of work and have created companies to allow it to occur. We shall see.

I can't leave this subject without asking, why is there federally-mandated tutoring in the first place? I'm sure that the question would be answered by a flurry of fingers pointing in all directions. Nonetheless, no one could deny that tutoring is mandated because many kids are not learning in the classroom. Who is responsible for what is taught in the classroom? One thing is certain. It's not Indian tutors.

[Update] Phone Sex Outsourced

A related story concerning outsourcing caught my attention and I couldn't pass up the opportunity to piggyback. In addition to tutoring services, the growing list of telecommunications resources available from India includes phone sex operations outsourced from America and Europe. According to a report in India Daily:

Some Call Centers in Bangalore and Mumbai have received some bizarre requests from the Western countries. Some call center operators have secretly set up phone sex operations in India.

Callers from America or Europe or any other part of the world can dial a toll free number that gets routed through a western nation into call centers in India after the caller pays in dollars or euros. Then the callers get connected to some Indian lady who provide the phone sex service.

Although phone sex operations are illegal, they are also lucrative. As such, legitimate businesses sometimes function as fronts. Law enforcement agencies are trying to shut down the operations, but they are difficult to control. The ability to forward calls to cell phones significantly hinders Interpol and Indian authorities in tracing and locating the offenders.

Interestingly, the phone sex business pays the girls so much money that there are plenty of educated young women anxious to work in the underground operations. Consequently, when outsourced illegal phone sex services in India are viewed with regard to outsourced legitimate tutoring services, an inquiring mind has to wonder if there's a possibility for women to be employed by both businesses at the same time. If so, what are the odds that Ronnie from New Delhi tutors math to little Johnny in the afternoon and then provides a session of phone sex to Johnny's Dad in the evening?