School That Gave Easy Grades to Athletes Is Closing

By DUFF WILSON
Published: December 24, 2005

University High School, a correspondence school in Miami being investigated for giving fast, high grades to qualify high school athletes for college scholarships, is going out of business Dec. 31, its founder, Stanley J. Simmons, said yesterday.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association yesterday named 17 people to a panel to study correspondence high schools and other nontraditional routes to college athletic eligibility and scholarships. The move is a response to questions about the legitimacy of the academic credentials of some high school athletes.

University High School offered degrees for $399 to high school athletes having grade problems, as well as to the older dropouts and the immigrants who were its main clients.

The school had no classes or instructors and operated virtually without supervision. Florida state law prohibits oversight of private schools.

Elite athletes in Dade County said they received study guides with open-book tests and got quick A's and B's. The N.C.A.A. and college admissions offices accepted those grades.

Twenty-eight high school athletes sent University High School transcripts to the N.C.A.A. eligibility clearinghouse in the past few years, according to a University of Tennessee report. The New York Times identified 14 who had signed with 11 Division I football programs: Auburn, Central Florida, Colorado State, Florida, Florida State, Florida International, Rutgers, South Carolina State, South Florida, Tennessee and Temple.

Simmons wrote a letter for the remaining students, telling them to pay their fees and finish their tests before Dec. 31. The letter concluded, in all upper-case letters, "If you are serious about receiving your high school diploma, we recommend that you act now!"

Simmons, who holds a master's degree in education from the University of Michigan, taught in Miami schools and a community college before opening a series of correspondence schools beginning in 1976. He served 10 months in a federal prison camp after pleading guilty in 1989 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, a felony, in connection with a diploma-mill university. Since then, he has operated correspondence high schools. - NYTimes.com
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It's a start. Note that Florida law prohibits oversight of private schools. I see that as meaning a diploma from a private school in Florida is meaningless, since there are no standards or criteria to be met.
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"He served 10 months in a federal prison camp after pleading guilty in 1989 to conspiracy to commit mail fraud, a felony, in connection with a diploma-mill university."

This gives me some concern about my doktorate in Nukular Fiziks.

I'm going to stick my neck out there and say that athletics is way over emphasized in schools. They spend as much on these athletic facilities as they do on classrooms and books. And when they make cuts the first thing they want to cut is arts programs. They never touch the athletics programs because I guess they make more money off of them. But it has little to do with learning. All they need is a field in the back of the school to keep the kids in shape and a covered shed to keep them dry. Everything else doesn't belong in the education system.

I guess the young 'uns "Plan B" is out, now.

Rover I don't think you're sticking your neck out at all. More kids will be professional artists, musicians, graphic designers, etc. than will be professional athletes.

One of the nation's best HS football programs (91 straight wins) was in my old city. I would occasionally attend their games, but NEVER missed their contest with West Charlotte - to see the West Charlotte band! A thing of beauty, that band.