Bill May Aid Private Tutoring Programs

Every afternoon, the Salesian Boys and Girls Club in City Terrace sends out vans to nearby campuses, to shuttle kids to the club’s popular tutoring program.

Operated by a Roman Catholic religious order founded in Italy in the 19th century, the club charges little or nothing for its services. And the need is great. Sometimes as many as 80 kids vie for the attention of the club’s three tutors.

But help, in the form of a cash infusion from the federal government, may be on the way.

Congressional leaders have agreed on a major education bill that is expected to pass perhaps as early as Friday and to be signed by President Bush later this month.

Beginning next fall, the bill would require academically weak schools to provide extra help to students in the form of tutoring or remedial programs after school or on Saturdays.

But the bill would also allow parents of students at those schools to choose to send their children to private tutoring centers, whether they are for-profit companies or churches or other nonprofit agencies. The school would have to provide as much as $1,000 per child to cover the cost.

The Bush administration had wanted children attending failing schools to be allowed to attend private schools at public expense. That idea did not pass muster in the House or Senate.

The compromise that appears headed for approval, however, still represents a huge victory for those who favor giving parents more choices in their children’s schooling. It also expands the role of faith-based organizations engaged in community service, another administration goal.

A Republican analysis of the education reform bill estimates that nearly 3,000 schools in 29 states that responded to a survey--including about 800 in California--would be considered failing schools under the terms of the bill, making their students eligible for the outside services. Of the schools in California considered to be failing, the bulk are located in Los Angeles, according to state data, although other urban areas with large numbers of children from low-income families are represented as well.

For private tutoring programs that now operate on a shoestring, the bill could provide the opportunity to expand if they get on a state-approved list of providers.

Andy Padilla, the coordinator of family and youth programs at the Salesian Club, was ecstatic when told of the provision in the pending legislation.

“Oh, oh, oh, my brother, you’re talking about something I can only dream of and pray for,” he said.

The topic of a staff meeting earlier this week was “the concern that we don’t have enough tutors for the number of kids we have,” Padilla said.

The club serves high-risk children from nearby schools such as Roosevelt High School, which is undergoing review by a state academic audit team; Hollenbeck Middle School; and Malabar, Evergreen and Breed Street elementary schools.

Some of children are “kids who are terrible in math and who cannot grasp the times tables, and these are the kids who fall through the cracks because the schools are passing them on with a B, and they come to middle school and everyone makes fun of them,” Padilla said. “They drop out and they’re ripe for the gangs because the gangs accept them unconditionally.”

But even though the club is backed by a religious order, Padilla said, prayer and proselytizing are not part of its mission.

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said he was comfortable with the legislation because it would require religious organizations to keep their tutoring secular and separate from their worship.

“There is strong language that’s enforceable and that could lead to removing funds from any organization that would violate these prohibitions,” Lynn said.

Giving public funds to religious schools for some forms of education aid is not new and has been ruled constitutional in the past. What is new in this legislation, however, is that parents of students at schools that are designated as low-performing would be able to act like consumers and seek out the services they think are best suited to their children.

Under the legislation, schools that do not meet specified targets for two years would be required to let students transfer to higher-performing schools. The school district would have to provide transportation.

If a school misses its target for a third year, the school would be required to give students extra help. Parents also could choose to seek help elsewhere. States are charged with identifying those schools, and they differ in how they make the determination.

The congressional analysis said Georgia has the largest number of schools not meeting their targets, with 971. California is second with 812. But large states such as New York, Ohio and Michigan have not yet identified the low-performing schools that would have to provide parents with the option of seeking outside help.