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Notes: Conservative advocacy group targets ACPS tutoring site for ties to TikTok parent company

Good Friday morning, Alexandria!

⛈️ Today’s weather: Expect showers with a potential thunderstorm after 2pm, a high near 74, and southwest wind at 7-10 mph. Precipitation chance is 80%, with rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, potentially higher in storms. Friday night will mostly have showers before 8pm, a low of 48, north wind at 9-11 mph, and an 80% chance of precipitation with less than a tenth-inch of new rainfall.

🚨 You need to know

Alexandria City High School (staff photo by James Cullum)

Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) is one of three localities in the region using an online tutoring service whose parent company is currently in the U.S. government’s crosshairs, WJLA reported.

It’s a somewhat tenuous connection, but one that’s riled up conservative non-profit Parents Defending Education. The organization also opposes things like critical race theory — the study of how racism is institutionalized in the United States.

Tutor.com is owned by Primavera Capital Group, the same Chinese investment firm that owns TikTok parent company ByteDance. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) recently set his sights on Tutor.com for that connection.

Cotton wrote:

This business relationship is ill-advised, reckless, and a danger to U.S. national security, and the Department should immediately end that relationship… While providing educational services, Tutor.com collects personal data on users, such as location, internet protocol addresses, and contents of the tutoring sessions. As Chinese national security laws require companies to release confidential business and customer data to the Chinese government, we are paying to expose our military and their children’s private information to the Chinese Communist Party.

Tutor.com offers students in those schools districts free access to online tutoring services available 24/7. In ACPS, the services is limited to students in 6th-12th grades. Parents Defending Education included ACPS as one of six school districts in Virginia using Tutor.com.

📈 Thursday’s most read

The following are the most-read ALXnow articles for Mar 14, 2024.

  1. Alexandria City Council rejects controversial Del Ray house and ADU proposal (852 views)
  2. Alexandria police still investigating Carlyle shooting that injured two men last month (851 views)
  3. Error at Arlington Water Pollution Control Plant causes Four Mile Run fish kill (531 views)

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