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Austin Partners in Education, a local nonprofit organization, works with students to make sure every child has individual help with their school work.

"We're trying to raise the bar in terms of getting them from where they are, up to a place where they can be functioning and moving along with the rest of the class," director Kathrin Brewer said.

Austin Partners in Education provides free tutoring for students during a time when the Austin Independent School District faces tough choices.

"This is becoming more important now with budget cuts," Brewer said."The teachers are going to be dealing with even larger classes."

While tutoring can be easy to come by in parts of Austin, Brewer said it's harder in low income areas.

"We need to educate these students, we need to wrap these services around them and bring them into the fold as our future work force," she said.

Austin Partners in Education sends about 900 volunteer tutors to second and sixth grade reading classes, along with eighth grade math classes. Those particular subjects were pinpointed as crucial to a student's education.

"They work on the class curriculum, just adapted, so it's easy for a volunteer to help the kid move forward," Brewer said.

Brewer believes if students keep falling behind, everyone will eventually feel the effects.

"If we don't pick it up, we pay later in our social costs," she said.

Austin Partners in Education is always looking for more volunteers and donations to help improve the education for Austin children.

For more information, visit AustinPartners.org.