Sylvan Learning Systems, the nation's top K-12 tutoring company, announced last week that it will sell its tutoring centers and focus entirely on higher education (operating colleges overseas and on the internet), an area which the company believes has greater long-term potential for growth. The purchaser, Apollo Management, a New York-based investment fund, will run the tutoring centers under a new corporate name, Educate, Inc. It isn't clear how this change will affect the availability of tutoring services for children funded by the supplemental services provision of the No Child Left Behind Act. Executives of the new firm say the change shouldn't affect consumers at all. Sylvan is already certified as a provider of such services in 23 states, although presently Sylvan is tutoring just 2400 children with funding from the federal law. More than 900 Sylvan Learning Centers currently operate in North America.
"Sylvan Learning, Changing Focus, Sells K-12 Sector," by Mark Walsh, Education Week, March 19, 2003
"Sylvan selling tutoring business," by Andrew Ratner, Baltimore Sun, March 11, 2003