Jackson Free Press

When Mississippi children return to school next week, money will follow them. The federal government provides Mississippi with more than $170 million to educate low-income students, with millions more for teaching students with disabilities and training teachers. For some of these dollars, stringent regulations keep states in line, ensuring that funds go where they are needed most. For others, the federal government is hands-off, allowing states and local school districts to spend money as they see fit. And for some programs, regulations are both too specific and too loose.

One such program is Supplemental Educational Services, which reporter Ward Schaefer focuses on at length in this week's cover story. This program requires low-performing schools to pay for after-school tutoring services, using federal funds. The goal is broad and noble: improve students' test scores at these schools and raise the schools' overall performance rating.

But the federal program makes some narrow demands: Only outside, private organizations can provide tutoring services. Only poor students—not necessarily the low-scoring ones who need to improve—are eligible for SES. And parents must choose a company to tutor their child—even those parents who may be uninvolved in their child's education.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, problems abound in the tutoring program. Only 20 percent of eligible students in Jackson Public Schools participate in SES. Participation rates around the country are similarly low. And as the Jackson Free Press revealed in an investigation two weeks ago, at least one company may have charged JPS for more than it should for the number of students it served.

Data on the program's effectiveness are inconclusive at best. Between low, inconsistent attendance and a cadre of tutoring providers who are disconnected from regular classroom teaching, the after-school tutoring program provides too little help for too few students.

It's time for national lawmakers to re-evaluate and re-imagine Supplemental Educational Services. Tutoring itself is not a doomed cause, but the federal government cannot expect results from the private-market boondoggle it mandated in 2001. They should consider suggestions like that of Cindy Brown, who proposed in 2007 that schools be allowed to use SES funds to extend their regular hours, instead of being forced into private contracts.

Until national lawmakers end the Supplemental Educational Services program as we know it, though, Mississippi school districts must address the program's shortcomings themselves and made public all possible problems with the program to date. Jackson Public Schools should make a concerted publicity push, through advertising, mail and PTSA organizing, to increase participation in SES. And school principals must do a better job of targeting eligible students who are truly low-performing, ensuring their attendance.