Dreams Protected: A New Approach to Policing Proprietary Schools' Misrepresentations
![handle is hein.journals/glj89 and id is 775 raw text is: Dreams Protected: A New Approach to Policing
Proprietary Schools' Misrepresentations
PATRICK F. LINEHAN*
In the proprietary school business what you sell is dreams, and so ninety-nine
percent of the sales were made in poor, black areas [at] welfare offices and
unemployment lines, and in housing projects. My approach was that if [a
prospect] could breathe, scribble his name, had a driver's license, and was
over 18 years of age, he was qualified for North American's program.
-Testimony of a former truck-driver training school owner before Senate
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.'
INTRODUCTION
Consider the story of Michael Joyner.2 Joyner, a sixty-nine year-old man with
a sixth grade education, worked as a factory worker for twenty-two years. After
seeing subway advertisements and television commercials portraying enroll-
ment in the Albert Merrill School as offering a sure path to a well-paying job,
Joyner inquired about the school's computer programming training program. A
school representative immediately administered an aptitude test, purportedly
aimed at measuring Joyner's ability to handle the coursework. Joyner neither
understood nor completed the exam in the allotted time. Even after observing
Joyner's poor performance, however, the representative assured the eager Joy-
ner that he had a good head, worth a $10,000 job. The representative further
stated that the school would place Joyner in such a job following his completion
of the school's program. Upon enrollment, representatives had Joyner sign
documents that he did not understand and that were not explained. Joyner
learned later that these documents were loan applications for approximately
$1,500. In the course of his program, Joyner voiced his desire to withdraw from
the school and receive a refund of his tuition. His apprehension was met with
reassurances from the school director that everyone passes. Throughout the
course, Joyner took open-book tests during which students were permitted to
copy the answers from other students' papers. Upon graduation, the school
supplied Joyner with a false r6sum6 to use in his job search. In the five years
* B.A., 1993, Yale College; Ed.M., 1997, Harvard Graduate School of Education; J.D., 2000,
Georgetown University Law Center. The author would like to thank Dean Peter Byrne for his scholarly
guidance, the author's assistant Patricia North and the author's sister Erin Linehan for their editorial
assistance, and the author's wife Maya Bermingham for her limitless patience and support throughout
the development of this Note. Any errors contained herein are the author's own.
1. S. REP. No. 102-58, at 12-13 (1991) [hereinafter Senate Report].
2. The details in the following paragraph are taken from Joyner v. Albert Merrill School, 411
N.Y.S.2d 988 (N.Y. City Civ. Ct. 1978).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/glj89&div=28&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Dreams Protected: A New Approach to Policing Proprietary Schools' Misrepresentations
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