Online Tutors: Education a Click Away

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25, 2006 — -- At the end of every school day, eighth-grader Taylor Robison heads home for a session with her tutor.

But Taylor's tutor, Gary Ishwar, doesn't come to her house. In fact, he's never been to America.

Ishwar lives in Bangalore, India -- 9,000 miles from Taylor's Modesto, Calif., home. A former schoolteacher who says he holds two master's degrees, Ishwar is one of a growing number of highly educated Indians now tutoring U.S. students over the Internet.

Students from elementary to graduate school can get help any time of the day or night, from the comfort of their homes. Subjects range from math to English.

It's the outsourcing of education. Just like manufacturing or service jobs, the task of teaching America's youth is no longer limited by borders.

Driving the trend is cost. Private tutoring in the United States can cost $100 an hour or more. An online session with an Indian tutor runs around $20 an hour -- and can cost much less than that if students sign up for a monthly rate.

Denise Robison, Taylor's mom, realized her daughter needed extra help after her grades slid last year from A's to C's.

"She was not getting it, and was just losing ground," she said.

As a single mom, Robison couldn't afford private tutoring for Taylor, so she decided to try an online service that her sister had recommended called TutorVista. She signed up Taylor in June for daily sessions with an Indian tutor in English and math at $100 a month.

"We did our own summer-school program," Robison said.

Offshore tutoring companies are still a relatively small segment of the $4 billion U.S. tutoring industry. But they're multiplying fast.

Online companies like TutorVista, Careerlauncher and Educomp are hoping to compete for millions of federal dollars available to private tutoring firms under the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, which mandated that the government pay for private tutoring for students in underperforming schools.

According to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, only 19 percent of students who qualify for those services are currently getting help. Proponents say offshore tutors could be a solution for many students -- especially lower-income ones, many of whom live in rural areas where private tutors are hard to find.