The Downfall of Paper 

Educational tech company PAPER has landed in hot water for bad business practices. From lying about its tutoring strategy to mistreating its staff before laying them off without warning, this tech start-up has fallen far from its bright future as an alternative to traditional schooling for kids. 

Philip Cutler started an online tutoring company called Grade Slam with Roberto Cipriani in 2014. The idea was to provide educational support to students in a comfortable environment. In 2020, Cutler and Cipriani changed the name to PAPER. During the COVID-19 pandemic, PAPER raised over $100 million in funding from schools. With teaching done entirely online, schools jumped at the opportunity to access quality methods to make online education a little easier.

“What I think is most important about online tutoring for both students and the tutor”, DBHS sophomore Milena Medeiros said,  “is that the student and tutor can meet without even having to change their schedule”.

One of, if not, the biggest draw of PAPER is its one-on-one tutoring. Their academic support system offers students a personal tutor to help answer questions, prepare for tests, and do their best in class. PAPER ensures academic progress by giving each student the undivided attention of one tutor. At least, that’s what they say they do.

In reality, one tutor handles at least three students at a time. Despite having hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, PAPER won’t use that money to pay for more tutors. In extreme cases, a tutor have juggled a dozen students at once. When this got out, PAPER tried to talk it out of it by saying that the students wouldn’t notice. However, they did. Tutors could not keep up and took to Long to answer questions.

Overwhelming work hours were not the only instances of mistreatment tutors suffered. They were not properly compensated for the hard work, at about $22 an hour. The Canadian offices made even less before all their employees were laid off without warning. The now former employees of the Canadian department are taking it as a sign that the business is not doing very well, and this was one of many drastic measures.

For the most part, PAPER has been dodging the negative press. But seeing as there is a popular Reedit thread detailing the struggles tutors go through, all the money they made during the pandemic will not last forever, its not unheard of that PAPER may not be around for much longer.

Written by Mackenzie Cobbler  | Graphic Designed by Mackenzie Cobbler

Published December 2, 2024 | ePathfinder | Feature