When a school fails to achieve "adequate yearly progress," No Child Left Behind (NCLB) allows students to obtain private tutoring at no charge to the student. Like much about NCLB, this sounds great, but the reality is quite different. For example, organizations that provide such tutoring must be licensed by the state. Of the few organizations that are now licensed in Massachusetts, most are private businesses such as Sylvan Learning Center. Such businesses charge top dollar for their services. Does the federal government pay for these services? Not really. The amount paid to these private companies for tutoring is deducted from the amount of federal aid going to that school. So the school that has already been identified as underperforming now has less money to spend on improving the quality of instruction. By taking money away from that school, NCLB makes it more likely that the school's performance will grow worse, not better, meaning that even more severe sanctions will be imposed the following year.