A private tutor in Westchester since 1986, Judy Suchman has seen both her business and her competition grow in a county where high academic achievement and admission to elite colleges often are household expectations. The demand from parents here has spawned a supply of tutoring services so numerous “you could wallpaper your house with the ads,” she said.
That demand continues, but parents”™ ability to pay for tutors”™ services has been taxed in the recession, she and other tutors to Westchester students said. For the first time in their years in the business, price does matter for parents who call. Some tutors such as Suchman have begun offering discounts and less costly tutoring options to bring in business in the downturn.
A former high school science teacher and medical researcher, Suchman employs about 15 tutors, all of them trained teachers, and offers sessions seven days a week at her Chappaqua Learning Center in Pleasantville. The office center typically draws students from Chappaqua, Briarcliff, Armonk, Katonah and Mount Kisco, and recently welcomed a New Jersey student.
“I have students who have four tutors,” said Suchman. Despite the recession, “The demand is the same. That hasn”™t changed. What has changed is what parents are willing to pay. That has definitely changed.
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“Up until the spring of last year, I never heard a parent say, ”˜How much do you charge?”™ That”™s gone,” she said. Gone are the days when Suchman quoted her own price for one-on-one sessions for SAT exams, $200 an hour, “and nobody ever batted an eye.”
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One mother when told of the head tutor”™s fee snapped, “”˜We can”™t have this conversation. My husband”™s unemployed,”™” said Suchman.
“Parents want to do something for their child, so basically they”™re opting for groups, which is a very, very different type of tutoring,” she said. She is not a proponent of group tutoring. “They”™re not homogeneous,” she said. “To find five homogeneously grouped students that can come in the same day” is difficult.
Adapting to the new economic reality, Suchman last summer offered group tutoring for SAT math and verbal tests, but limited the groups to three students. She charged $795 for 18 hours of tutoring, an hourly rate well below the cost for a one-on-one session with Chappaqua Learning Center tutors, who typically are paid from $100 to $150 per hour. But her reluctance to offer more of the groups in demand from cost-minded parents “impacts my income,” she said.
“I would say my business is off easily 25 to 30 percent this year,” Suchman said. She has open hours on her schedule at the center that she never had before. She is offering 10 percent discounts to students who use two tutors within the office and a 10 percent session discount for a student who refers another student to the center.
“I”™ve never done that,” Suchman said. “It”™s to encourage business.”
In Hartsdale, Chyten Educational Services Center opened for business in fall of 2008. Part of a franchise company based in Lexington, Mass., it has survived despite the recession that hit home in Westchester at about the same time.
“All of our business results have exceeded what our initial expectations were,” said Kevin Hunt, the center”™s director. When making initial projections, “We hadn”™t taken into account the effect of the economy.” Educational and health care services have been less affected by the recession, he noted.
“We”™ve only been operating for, quote unquote, ”˜the tough times,”™” said Hunt, a former senior brand director at Snapple Beverage Corp. Yet the Chyten center has been operating at a break-even level or slightly better since November 2008, the third month after opening. “The reception that we”™ve had in the area has been absolutely phenomenal,” he said.
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In Chappaqua, Laura Wilson has seen the recession”™s impact on the tutoring business, Wilson Prep, she started in 2001 for students preparing for SAT and ACT exams. The former high school English teacher last year launched Wilson Daily Prep, an online tutoring service that has been used by more than 2,000 students.
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“My business used to be one-on-one tutoring,” said Wilson, who employs about 15 tutors in her Chappaqua office. “Now I have many students signing up for groups,” which are priced at about half the cost of private sessions.
“Three years ago, parents never really used to ask about the price of tutoring,” she said. “Now, as it should be, that”™s the first question: ”˜How much?”™”
Offering group classes of from three to 30 students, “I have varying price points because the economy is so bad,” she said. Because of the economy, she has stopped charging students $25 for each of the SAT and ACT practice exams used in group sessions.
Wilson said she saw a strong shift in demand to group tutoring last December. “This year, the groups are out of control,” she said. “It”™s the bane of my existence,” as she tries to match students”™ academic abilities and juggle their extracurricular schedules for meeting times.
“My online program has been extremely popular,” she said. “It”™s the right price point.” At $139 for three months of online test preparation, the cost is less than one private office session with a tutor.
“I even find that students are taking the (college entrance) exams earlier, so that in a sense you”™re cutting down on the tutoring” and its expense, she said.
Despite the strain on household finances, “Parents aren”™t willing to sacrifice tutoring for the SATs and ACTs,” Wilson said. “They”™re willing to do whatever it takes to make sure the process goes through as in the past.”
In some Westchester families, that has grandparents offering to pay a student”™s tutoring bill. Wilson said she recently received one such call from a grandmother whose son was out of work.
In the tutoring business, “It”™s getting worse,” she said.
