I have been working for Educate Online, otherwise known as Sylvan Learning and Catapult for 4 years. To get my job, I needed a background check, fingerprinting, a 4 year college degree and a teaching certificate. My starting wage was $10/hr. We were also paid for an extra 10 minutes to write up reflections on each lesson per child for the parents and other evaluators.
It was supposed to be a nice little side job, to make a few extra dollars. At the time of my initial training, we were told that we would be working with one or two students online per hour. Parents were being charged $50/hour.
Today, I am still making $10/hr. Still, no benefits. We now must work with 4 students at a time. Our extra 10 minutes to write up notes has been removed, and we are now required to fill in 5 boxes of reflection notes per child, on our own time.
Parents and school districts are told they are getting individualized tutoring. Nothing of the sort. The worksheets we use haven't been revised once since I have been there. The lessons are canned. There are frequent errors, and when I alert management as to erroneous information, I am ignored. At the most, I can spend 15 minutes out of an hour per child. That 15 min is scattered across the hour, as I must attend to the other 3 students.
When I complain about not getting my promised raises, or having to deal with 4 kids at a time (all working on different lessons), or a host of other miscellaneous problems, I am told I have to 'go along to get along' and do my best through these difficult times.
What difficult times? This company made 21% profit last year. The ceo j. Cohen makes $300K. Much of the money comes from school districts that can't make AYP, and so they are forced by the NCLB law to send their failing kids to tutoring. It is our tax dollars that are making this company rich. They are using the 'depression' as an excuse to rip off their employees, forcing us to work for free. As more and more schools are deamed failures, NCLB will force more schools to send their kids to Educate Online. This is a booming economy for this industry. If 4 parents or school districts pay $50/hr, that means I get paid $2.50 per head per hour, or 5%.
Because almost all of the over 10,000 employees are part-time, and work from home, they can't unionize, they have no voice. If they complain, they can get fired.
Before you think I am just another disgruntled employee, know that I love the job. I see kids turn their learning abilities around. I know that EO actually does what it promises, it does make students better learners. But why is that? Because the 10,000 highly qualified teachers make it happen, despite their awful treatment. Most of these teachers are female, by the way.
But, I cannot continue to be lied to, I cannot work for free (that is a violation of the 13th Amendment, last I checked), I cannot sit by and watch a company advertise something it can't deliver. I can't tolerate a company that keeps using the economy to further enrich itself at the hands of the taxpayers, while demeaning its employees. The USDE needs to investigate. The school districts need to be held accountable to their taxpayers. If they knew how the tutors were being treated, they might think twice.
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