To Provide Online Tutoring Services
A just-announced major initiative seeks to put Texas retired teachers into virtual classrooms to provide an estimated 250,000 tutoring hours this
Parents will also be able to directly sign up for online tutoring for their children under the program.
The plan was announced via a webcast (Oct. 28) by Tim Lee, executive director of the 96,000-member Texas Retired Teachers Association (TRTA) about the new project launched by the Texas Retired Teachers Foundation (TRTF), the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit charitable arm of the TRTA.
Seeks $10 Million in Donations
Lee said the goal of the program is to raise at least $10 million in donations over the next 30 days to pay for 250,000 hours of online student tutoring to be made available to Texas public schools at a free or reduced price basis, with the tutoring provided by retired Texas teachers who would be paid as much as $40 an hour.
Lee said the kernal of the idea was rooted in the closure of Texas public schools last March due to the pandemic, which in turn shut off the sources of income for many retired teachers who had been working as substitute teachers.
Even for schools that have (or are in the process of) reopening for the new school year, retired teachers, who are in the high risk group for COVID-19, are likely reluctant to return to physically work in schools.
Lee conceded that the goal to raise $10 million in donations within 30 days sounds challenging, but he noted that an initial budget of $25,000 that was established to get the ball rolling last spring resulted in donations from the sponsors of the foundation and others contributing a quarter of a million dollars “in just a matter of hours.”
Tax-deductible donations of any amount are currently being accepted, and will be appreciated, Lee said.
Lee said that one of the major advantages of the program for public schools is that superintendents and school boards won’t have to worry about signing up with an entity that has a political or financial agenda.
“We support our public schools,” Lee said, adding: “We can’t think of anybody that is better at helping our kids and their public schools’ needs and their educational needs than retired teachers.”
“Zero Interest” in Making a Profit
The foundation has “zero interest” in making a profit, Lee said.
To provide the online technology, the foundation has contracted with Knack, which (before the pandemic) had focused on providing the technology for online tutoring services on the college level, but is now getting into the K-12 tutoring environment.
Lee said the tutoring experience won’t be a Zoom call, but instead will be a full-featured online classroom setting, with a digital whiteboard and all kinds of instruments and interfaces to ensure that the partnerships between tutors and their students are successful. (See this video on the tutoring experience.)
Knack, in addition to providing the platform, will provide vetting services for tutors and 1099 IRS forms. Tutors will work as independent contractors.
The program has set a Nov. 16 target date for parents to directly sign up for tutoring services for their children. Lee said this would have been helpful last spring, when his children’s schools shut down and he found he needed a tutor to help with one of his children who was taking Latin.
Although he said that this situation, of finding a tutor, was alleviated due to his role in the retired teachers’ association, not all parents are that fortunate.
Sign-up and other information geared to school districts, parents and prospective donors are provided on the program’s web page: https://trtf.org//tutor