# teachers unions-pro union anti kids



## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

Might as well stir the pudding a little :lol:

U.S. homework outsourced as "e-tutoring" grows By Jason Szep
Thu Sep 28, 10:43 AM ET

Private tutors are a luxury many American families cannot afford, costing anywhere between $25 to $100 an hour. But California mother Denise Robison found one online for $2.50 an hour -- in India.

*"It's made the biggest difference. My daughter is literally at the top of every single one of her classes and she has never done that before," *said Robison, a single mother from Modesto.

Her 13-year-old daughter, Taylor, is one of 1,100 Americans enrolled in Bangalore-based TutorVista, which launched U.S. services last November with a staff of 150 "e-tutors" mostly in India with a fee of $100 a month for unlimited hours.

Taylor took two-hour sessions each day for five days a week in math and English -- a cost that tallies to $2.50 an hour, a fraction of the $40 an hour charged by U.S.-based online tutors such as market leader Tutor.com that draw on North American teachers, or the usual $100 an hour for face-to-face sessions.

"I like to tell people I did private tutoring every day for the cost of a fast-food meal or a Starbucks' coffee," Robison said. "We did our own form of summer school all summer."

The outsourcing trend that fueled a boom in Asian call centers staffed by educated, low-paid workers manning phones around the clock for U.S. banks and other industries is moving fast into an area at the heart of U.S. culture: education.

It comes at a difficult time for the U.S. education system: only two-thirds of teenagers graduate from high school, a proportion that slides to 50 percent for black Americans and Hispanics, according to government statistics.

China and India, meanwhile, are producing the world's largest number of science and engineering graduates -- at least five times as many as in the United States, where the number has fallen since the early 1980s.

Parents using schools like Taylor's say they are doing whatever they can to give children an edge that can lead to better marks, better colleges and a better future, even if it comes with an Indian accent about 9,000 miles away.

SLANG & AMERICAN ACCENTS

"We've changed the paradigm of tutoring," said Krishnan Ganesh, founder and chairman of TutorVista, which offers subjects ranging from grammar to geometry for children as young as 6 years old to adults in college.

"It's not that the U.S. education system is not good. It's just that it's impossible to give personalized education at an affordable cost unless you use technology, unless you use the Internet and unless you can use lower-cost job centers like India," he said over a crackly Internet-phone line from Bangalore. "We can deliver that."

Many of the tutors have masters degrees in their subjects, said Ganesh. On average, they have taught for 10 years. Each undergoes 60 hours of training, including lessons on how to speak in a U.S. accent and how to decipher American slang.

They are schooled on U.S. history and state curricula, and work in mini-call centers or from their homes across India. One operates out of Hong Kong, teaching the Chinese language.

As with other Indian e-tutoring firms such as Growing Stars Inc., students log on to TutorVista's Web site and are assigned lessons by tutors who communicate using voice-over-Internet technology and an instant messaging window. They share a simulated whiteboard on their computers.

Denise Robison said Taylor had trouble understanding her tutor's accent at first. "Now that she is used to it, it doesn't bother her at all," she said.

TutorVista launched a British service in August and Ganesh said he plans to expand into China in December to tap demand for English lessons from China's booming middle class. In 2007, he plans to launch Spanish-language lessons and build on Chinese and French lessons already offered.

A New Delhi tutoring company, Educomp Solutions Ltd., estimates the U.S. tutoring market at $8 billion and growing. Online companies, both from the United States and India, are looking to tap millions of dollars available to firms under the U.S. No Child Left Behind Act for remedial tutoring.

*Teachers unions hope to stop that from happening. * :eyeroll:

"Tutoring providers must keep in frequent touch with not only parents but classroom teachers and we believe there is greater difficulty in an offshore tutor doing that," said Nancy Van Meter, a director at the American Federation of Teachers.

But No Child Left Behind, a signature Bush administration policy, encourages competition among tutoring agencies and leaves the door open for offshore tutors, said Diane Stark Rentner of the Center on Education Policy in Washington.

"The big test is whether the kids are actually learning. Until you answer that, I don't know if you can pass judgment on whether this is a good or bad way to go," she said.


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## Gohon (Feb 14, 2005)

Had this been available to me when my kids were growing up I would have used it in a heart beat. The Teachers Union knows where they can stick it&#8230;&#8230;


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Give me a break....I just had an estimate done to replace the shower in my basement.Prominent on the estimate was.....Labor.....$40 per hour.And that's ND cheap.

And every time aI call a company for assisstance on something.....I get someone from India.....It's OK for large companies to do this,but teachers should charge $2.50 per hour to tutor???? :eyeroll:

So what the 2 of you are saying is that I should offer my services for $2.50 per hour after I retire next year as a tutor????? :rollin: :rollin: :rollin:


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## Turner (Oct 7, 2005)

It's a $100.00 a month charge, unlimited hours. If you use it one hour, it cost you $100.00/hr if you use it for 100 hours....you get the picture. They are doing this as a mass selling, hoping that they get as many signed up as possible that is where they make their money. I will bet that less than 20% use it more than a couple of hours a month after they sign up.

I really do not care for it because I wouldn't have the patients to take the time to understand there accent. I dropped a college course once because I couldn't understand the foreign professor. I paid too much tuition money to have to translate what they were saying and learn the subject at the same time.


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

> So what the 2 of you are saying is that I should offer my services for $2.50 per hour after I retire next year as a tutor?????


 :lol: that would probably be a raise if you figure all the time you probably put in. And I don't see where either one of us said that.....

Seriously this is a criticism of teacher unions not individual teachers, and its Friday I'm stuck in a office so I thought I might as well get DJ fired up. :wink:

Did you get a pup??


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Bob,you have to much time on your hands.Are you coming up here to hunt this fall?


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## Gohon (Feb 14, 2005)

Ken, why did you get a estimate on your shower? Why didn't you just call up the first plumber in the phone book and tell him to come on out and fix it. Because you were shopping for the lowest price that's why. You can charge what ever you want as a tutor. Me, I'll shop around and if I find quality service at a lower price, that's where my money will go. The consumer doesn't owe you anything.

Tony, this is a live Internet service, not over the phone conversations so language should not be a problem.


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

Ken I'm trying to, my life isn't my own until I get all these kids raised.

I think I'll be up in the next 4-5 weeks but might make a late season hunt this year instead, my two hunting buddies are having some medical problems so I'm trying to work out my schedule around them.

Its heck getting old isn't it, I sure am dreading when I get as old as Dick :lol:

Looking forward to seeing you guys....


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## KEN W (Feb 22, 2002)

Gohon said:


> Ken, why did you get a estimate on your shower? Why didn't you just call up the first plumber in the phone book and tell him to come on out and fix it. Because you were shopping for the lowest price that's why. You can charge what ever you want as a tutor. Me, I'll shop around and if I find quality service at a lower price, that's where my money will go. The consumer doesn't owe you anything.
> 
> Tony, this is a live Internet service, not over the phone conversations so language should not be a problem.


Wrong.....I guess you know more about my life than I do.... :eyeroll: ....For your information,we asked another outfit a couple months ago....no estimate.....just come and do it.We got tired of waiting and called this one.They came and looked at it and said we'll be back in a couple hours and they brought what it would cost.

Who in the heck said the consumer owes me something????I'm the consmer in the incident I related.Go ahead and shop for a tutor. I would to.....you can send your kid where ever you want here.Tutors here don't even have to have a degree.

So if you can find one to do it for $2.50 an hour,go ahead.


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## adokken (Jan 28, 2003)

Bob my wife bought a door knob today, said it was guarenteed for 20 years. I told her why didn't you buy one that was guarenteed for ten years and pay half. I would be tickled if I can still find the damned thing ten years from now, the door knob I mean. Three weeks until my elk hunt.


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## Gohon (Feb 14, 2005)

Well good for you sport............ glad you got your shower repaired but you're the one that said you got a estimate and was complaining how much it was, then went on to imply Bob and I were for something that would possible endangering your future livelihood. Sorry to hear ND doesn't require a degree for a tutor.......... sounds pretty bad and kind of sad but on the other hand the TutorVista site claims their tutors have MBAs and Masters in Education degrees from top universities. Sounds like students are going to get a lot of bang for their buck don't you think. I wish you good luck but modernization may be passing you by in this case.


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## Bobm (Aug 26, 2003)

adokken,

You are my hero, I needed a good laugh, I hope you get a fat one, and an elk too :wink:


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