March 9, 2005 | By STEFAN C. FRIEDMAN | New York Times

FROM NY POST....Feb 20, 2005

Many city parents are having their right to choose a tutoring program for their kids undercut by educators breaking federal guidelines and steering students toward their favorite providers, a Post investigation has revealed.

This year, roughly 73,000 poor children from more than 250 failing city schools will take advantage of free tutoring granted under the Supplemental Education Services provision of the No Child Left Behind law.

Stipulated in the SES guidelines is that parents can pick any tutoring company deemed eligible by the state, including 45 firms in New York City.

At the beginning of the school year, parents are given a packet containing information on all eligible programs. The programs can vary widely depending on tutor-to-students ratio, and when and where the sessions are held.

To keep parent choice intact, educators are barred from giving unsolicited advice on which program to choose.

But principals and parent coordinators are pressuring parents to go with companies that have had prior relationships with the city, including Kaplan K12 Learning Services and Newton Learning - a division of Edison Schools - some parents and tutoring providers say.

In one case, Noemi Intriago - parent coordinator at Community School 66 in The Bronx - wrote a letter to parents that read more like an advertisement for Newton. "Newton Learning is your best SES choice," Intriago wrote. "The Newton Learning Adventure offers FUN and EXCITING activity-based lessons."

Principal Marilyn Smith also signed the letter.

Told of the contents of the letter, federal education official Michael Petrilli called it "inappropriate." "This program is meant to allow an even playing field for all providers," said Petrilli, who works at of the Office of Innovation and Improvement. He added that the feds would let the state and city sort out the problem, but might intervene if the trend continued.

Neither Intriago nor Smith returned repeated calls for comment.

The day after The Post inquired about the letter, an Upper Manhattan school principal received an e-mail from a higher-up reminding the educator that advocating for specific providers was not allowed, according to a source who was with the principal when the e-mail was received.

Other evidence of educators exerting their influence comes directly from the mouths of parents.

A collection of 10 parents assembled from CS 66 and PS 152 in The Bronx and PS 4 in Manhattan told The Post that after enrolling with tutoring provider Platform Learning, their forms were shelved or ignored by principals and parent coordinators.

"I was told it was Newton or nothing," said Gricelida Ruiz, whose 11-year-old daughter, Elvira, is in the fifth grade at CS 66.

One parent from PS 4 said that Principal Delois White sat down with a group of parents and instructed them to go with Kaplan.

When contacted, White said, "I have nothing to do with SES," before quickly hanging up the phone.

At PS 152, parent coordinator Christina Hernandez admitted there was "a giant mix-up," but said parents had submitted the wrong form in choosing Platform, a claim Platform and the parents dispute.

With the feds expected to shell out up to $75 million to city tutoring providers this year, the competition between the companies is growing fiercer by the day.

Executives from Platform - the tutoring company that serves more city kids and rakes in more money than any other provider - say they've fallen victim to educators with cozy relationships to other companies.

"Companies that have relationships with NYCDOE that predate SES, have been leveraging their relationships to tie up schools and steer parents to their programs," said Gene Wade, Platform CEO.

Officials from a handful of other tutoring companies interviewed by The Post agreed with Wade, but refused to give their names.

Wade pointed to Harold Levy, the former schools chancellor who now works as the general counsel for Kaplan, as an example of these cozy relationships.

Dick Riley, the former spokesman for the powerful United Federation of Teachers, recently signed on with Kaplan, as well.

In 2003, Kaplan billed DOE $860,760 for serving 2,443 kids, while Newton - then using the name Edison Schools - sent DOE a bill for $5,059,783 for tutoring 5,682 kids.

A DOE spokesperson said that officials would look into incidents of principals steering parents, but defended the overall implementation of the SES program.

"Isolated cases of overzealous school staff should be seen in the context of the overall growth of the program, which now has over 73,000 students participating," Michele Higgins said.

"As with anything questionable that is brought to our attention, we will investigate this further."