| The world as we know it is changing in leaps and | | | | passage of the act and the United States, as a |
| bounds on a daily basis. Our children are growing up | | | | whole, fell behind in education. |
| knowing and using iPods and computers with | | | | Supplemental Educational Services |
| gigabytes of data storage for all their music and | | | | In 2004-2005, there were more than 22 million |
| video files. High-speed Internet has become a way of | | | | children eligible for "supplemental educational services", |
| life where more young people subscribe to read, | | | | which includes tutoring. About 19% of those students |
| chat, and communicate with friends online than ever | | | | got those services, or roughly two out of every ten |
| before. As the Internet marketplace continues to | | | | students who were not proficient in core subjects, |
| expand rapidly, and technologies afford education | | | | received aid. A good analogy would be a physician |
| access from the ease and convenience of home, it is | | | | telling the parents of ten children that that they need |
| imperative that parents and educators recognize the | | | | medicine to cure an illness and only two out of the |
| benefits involved in education online. | | | | ten children can receive the medicine that they need. |
| The public education system in the United States | | | | The need for tutoring is obviously there. Why then is |
| grew out of an economy based upon single income | | | | the current method of tutoring inadequate? There |
| workers, zero competition from outside markets for | | | | are principally four reasons why tutoring has been |
| internal education consumers, and more | | | | ineffective: |
| manufacturing jobs than service jobs. The baby | | | | 1) Schools can recruit tutors for students in rural |
| boomers born during the post World War II era, | | | | areas and even fewer for those students in those |
| enjoyed the benefits of President Franklin D. | | | | areas with disabilities. 2) School districts do not tell |
| Roosevelt's Servicemen's Readjustment Act or the | | | | parents that tutoring is available. When letters are |
| GI Bill of Rights, which granted affordable access to | | | | sent home they often arrive late and are hard to |
| college education. The baby boomers of the United | | | | understand. 3) Tutors are not allowed into schools |
| States catapulted into growth as a result of this, | | | | and do not coordinate with teachers or the curriculum |
| enjoying an unprecedented level of abundance and | | | | in the classroom, leaving the student confused. 4) |
| prosperity. | | | | State education departments do not evaluate the |
| One of these baby boomers is President George W. | | | | quality of tutors, as the law requires. |
| Bush, who enacted the No Child Left Behind Act | | | | On one hand we have American schools and |
| (NCBA), offering the societal challenge of making | | | | students failing and in need of remediation, operating |
| every child proficient in reading and math by 2012. A | | | | under an outdated system of education, and money |
| schoolteacher for more than thirty years, who now | | | | going to waste, and on the other hand we have an |
| runs a management company for teacher training, | | | | emerging technology platform based on high speed |
| described the resultant effect of this act upon the | | | | broadband technology that is leveling the playing field |
| public school system as one which far exceeded the | | | | for people, and companies worldwide. This |
| capabilities of what American public schools can | | | | technology is one that not only attracts our children, |
| currently offer. | | | | but also captivates them, so that they return to |
| Despite the grandiose claims of the NCBA, actual | | | | computers and multimedia repeatedly for |
| school performance began to decrease after the | | | | entertainment. |