Thursday, December 1, 2005

Florida AG's Office to Investigate University High School

Bill McCann alerts me to an investigation by the Florida Attorney General's Office into University High School for criminal fraud. As we discussed on Tuesday, students at the Miami-based University High tend to receive preposterously high grades (exams are untimed and open book; assignments contain the answers in the back; students do not take classes), and many high school athletes have taken advantage of that setting in order to meet the requisite GPA for NCAA scholarship eligibility.

Basically, star athletes who can't cut it at their local high schools transfer to University High, where they suddenly obtain the kind of grades one would expect of Dartmouth's or MIT's incoming class. And then they matriculate to a college with a premiere football program and generate significant revenue for that college.

It's nice to see the Florida Attorney General's Office promptly responding to the New York Times exposé, but it's disappointing that schools like this even exist, and it makes you wonder why there aren't more stringent entry rules for prospective schools. I wonder how many of these "schools" are out there?

Also, why are these colleges taking University High grads? I thought college football players were supposed to be "student-athletes" and not "athletes"?

Oh, yeah, they take them so they can make a lot of money for the college. Sorry to ask such a rhetorical question!

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