State and federal officials are beginning to raise concerns over the use of Tutor.com in schools due to its ownership by China-based investment firm Primavera Capital Group. The pushback against the 24/7 on-demand tutoring and homework services provider has been particularly strong among Republican leaders.
The Florida Department of Education, for instance, recently sent a letter to public K-12 and higher education leaders in the state flagging “potential issues” with Tutor.com given its Chinese ownership.
The letter from Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said school districts, charters and state colleges “should not contract with companies that have ties to foreign countries of concern.” Diaz added that education leaders must guarantee their contracts are in line with state laws and regulations on student data protections.
Tutor.com disputes that its services pose any threat to student data privacy. “We are disappointed by the recent outreach from the Florida Department of Education, which mistakenly assumes that private information of those who use our tutoring services could be transferred to China,” a Tutor.com spokesperson said in a statement to K-12 Dive.
The scrutiny of Tutor.com comes as the influx of tech into classrooms and growing complexity of cyberthreats have made student data privacy a top priority for leaders at the federal, state and district levels. Those concerns also come at a time when some members of Congress are seeking to ban TikTok because of the social media app’s Chinese ownership. TikTok’s parent company is ByteDance, a portfolio company of Primavera.
Districts should ‘err on the side of caution’
Tutor.com said in its statement that Primavera “is not involved in the day-to-day operations of Tutor.com.”
The company contracts with major school districts including Los Angeles Unified School District, Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia and Clayton County Public Schools in Georgia, according to its website. It provides nearly two million sessions per year for tutoring, homework help and test preparation.
“Primavera does not have — and may not obtain — access to Tutor.com’s IT systems, per a U.S. government national security review conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that was voluntarily initiated by both parties when the private equity firm acquired Tutor.com,” the spokesperson added.
Tutor.com was founded in Delaware over two decades ago, and Primavera has owned the company since 2022.
In most cases, when a company is purchased by an investment firm, it shouldn’t raise flags because these firms are usually not involved in their company’s daily operations, said Lisa Plaggemier, executive director of the National Cybersecurity Alliance. However, that changes if an the investment firm is based in China, she said, adding that these fears that data could be shared with the country’s government are not unwarranted.
“The government involvement in all things that look like business is pervasive in China,” Plaggemier said. “At face value, you could say ‘Oh, well they only made an investment. How involved are they really with Tutor.com?’ But in a case where this is a country with a 100-year plan to be dominant, you have to look at it through that lens.”
With that in mind, Plaggemier said, it’s a good idea for school districts and their boards to reconsider or pull out from their contracts with Tutor.com. “I think you have to err on the side of caution and assume that there’s probably some access to that data by the Chinese.”
As part of Tutor.com’s agreement with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the company must have a data security officer to monitor and ensure compliance with data protection measures on an ongoing basis. The person in this role must be vetted and approved by U.S. government officials, according to the company’s spokesperson.
Additionally, Tutor.com’s spokesperson said the company has two independent directors who are required, vetted and approved by U.S. government officials. Those directors’ primary responsibility is to ensure that personal data is “appropriately safeguarded.”
While it appears Tutor.com’s efforts to protect data are “well-intentioned,” Plaggemier still questions “How do you verify these things?” For her, the risks involved with Tutor.com don’t seem worth it for schools — especially if there are alternative platforms.
“If there are other viable solutions where you don’t have the same concerns, then why would you take on the additional risk that’s partially funded by an adversary?” Plaggemier asked.
Other pushback
The pushback on Tutor.com is still unfolding. Santa Rosa County Schools in Florida canceled its contract with Tutor.com two weeks after parents brought forth their concerns over Tutor.com’s ownership, WEAR News recently reported.
A parental rights organization, Parents Defending Education, has been flagging similar concerns over Tutor.com and is tracking the company’s contracts with states and school districts throughout the country. Hawaii, Louisiana, New Hampshire, South Carolina and West Virginia all currently use Tutor.com’s services via their education departments or public libraries.
Meanwhile, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, and Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York, introduced a bill last month that would ban the Department of Defense from using Tutor.com. The company currently provides services to DoD service members and their families.
“There is no reason the Pentagon should be paying a Chinese-owned service that collects the data of our service members and their families. There are plenty of American companies that offer tutoring services and aren’t subject to the Chinese government,” said Cotton in a statement.
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