It looks like a tutoring program run by the Columbus Education Association's tutoring program has ended--before it even started.

The teachers' union in Ohio's capital city recently gained--then unceremoniously lost--access to under-performing schools for its newly formed tutoring company, with plans to pay teachers $30 per hour to tutor at the same schools where they worked .

Via a district lottery, the union had won access to one of the district's tutoring contracts to provide this service to a sizable portion of subpar Columbus schools. Then along came a big budget cut, so the district was forced to slash the number of students considered eligible for the free service, leaving the union to pay the rent in a number of buildings with 80 percent fewer students.

It was probably just as well that the union got out when it did. The Ohio Ethics Commission recently ruled that federal money can't be paid to teachers who tutor in their own districts unless suitable tutors cannot be found at a similar or lower cost.