The reality is that the case of Princeton Review, Inc. vs.
The Federal Government will get settled
and it will be labeled a "victimless crime." There will be no trial
and Princeton Reviews’ insurance will pay out the government. The thieves will
get away with it and this case settlement will be long forgotten. Everyone will
let this slip under the rug.
But the real victims here are the children, the students who
never had the chance and benefit of high quality tutoring and test preparation,
because I have seen first-hand at Kweller Prep what an incredibly positive
impact high quality tutoring can have on a child. We have no government
subsidies, so any kids we take low cost or on scholarship comes out of my
pocket,
I'm very familiar with Princeton Review, and not surprised
by the allegations. I run my own boutique test prep and tutoring center
(Kweller Prep Tutoring in New York) and could never understand how The
Princeton Review Company can keep their rates so low, never check homework, and
not carefully monitor student progress while they seem to have so much staff. I
also thought always thought that it was illegal for them to obtain private
student data from public schools, such as home addresses and emails (beware!
You can never get off a Princeton review email list serve!)
I always suspected
this company of bribing school officials or doing something shady. They seem to
be in almost every low income school in New York, yet I never heard of their
effectiveness from even one.
We also had many
students who went to Princeton Review prior to going to Kweller Prep, and they
kept complaining how disorganized the program was at their school. We took such
students at a huge discount, because they had already spent precious money on
another program. I always felt so bad for the Princeton Review Kids in
particular, because they usually would hear about Kweller Prep after taking
Princeton Review and wasting their time, and wind up re-taking the SAT senior
year.
Well, I guess when the government pays $75 per student per
hour for group tutoring, where there are
30 kids enrolled in a class, it all makes sense.
Shame on the Princeton Review, and shame on the Federal Government
for knowing about this fraud since 2006, but not doing anything about it until
they collected more evidence.
Perhaps the most stressful time in a student’s academic life
is preparing for the SAT’s. My heart goes out to the kids who put their faith
into the Princeton review and to all the parents who thought they were getting
a “discount.” Shame on them for doing this to New York City children.
