From today’s Wash Post:
In what the NCAA hopes will be the first significant step in eliminating fraudulent preparatory schools and high schools, its board of directors yesterday gave college sports’ governing body unprecedented authority to investigate “diploma mills” and declare students who attend those schools academically ineligible. …
Investigations by The Washington Post and New York Times found several prep schools across the country that operate with little oversight by the NCAA or state education boards. Lutheran Christian Academy in Philadelphia, which was the subject of an investigation by The Post, had only one full-time employee — basketball coach Darryl Schofield — and was operated out of a community center.
The investigations found some prep schools offer courses with little academic rigor and are operated for one purpose — to get athletes academically eligible to play college sports. Former basketball players at Lutheran Christian Academy, for instance, told The Post they rarely attended classes and that the school had no teachers and didn’t use traditional textbooks. Yet, Lutheran Christian Academy is still approved to teach 35 core classes approved by the NCAA, the Clearinghouse’s Web site showed last night.