Are We That Desperate For Schools?

The developer of two Utah private schools, one called the "School for Autistic Healing," is under scrutiny for the schools' finances, as well as their business and education licenses and whether or not they are being "'ethically' marketed."

According to the July 5th Salt Lake Tribune, real estate developer Bob Jones is bankrupt. He acquired a private school, Woodland Hills---which had served students with Asperger's syndrome and other cognitive and behavioral impairments since the 1990s---in 2007. After promising to "inject cash and build a comprehensive sports program," he changed the name of the school and "began recruiting athletes with scholarships, angering tuition-paying parents of special needs kids who said their children were bullied and neglected." Jones now appears to be "using the Woodland Hills name and non-profit status to raise money for his new schools, which opened last January -- at about the same time Jones filed personal bankruptcy."

Um, talk about "using" autism and disability for one's own ends?

The Salt Lake Tribune describes what sounds like a kind of pyramid scene to get parents of autistic children to contribute money in the hopes of having a child's tuition provided:

A Web site promoting the School for Austistic Healing claims affiliation with Woodland Hills and encourages people to make tax deductible donations. If parents with autistic children give $50 a month and find three other people to make the same commitment, they could qualify to have their child's $14,000 annual tuition "paid for by the fundraiser," the site advertises.

Some 138 people---"banks, contractors, suppliers to the construction industry and parents of students and former employees of the now defunct Utah Southvalley Community School (USC), formerly known as Woodland Hills"---are claiming that Jones owes them "tens of millions of dollars."

Parents are desperate to get the education and services for a child that they need. It's pretty terrible to think that some might be giving precious dollars to what looks like a scam and certainly not to an actual school that can educate their child---and that there are people out there dreaming up such (potentially fraudulent) schemes to make a profit, and not to educate students who more than need it.