New dental school faces state opposition

Discussion in 'Accreditation Discussions (RA, DETC, state approva' started by deanhughson, Aug 8, 2005.

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  1. deanhughson

    deanhughson New Member

    New dental school faces state opposition


    By Kristen Consillio
    Pacific Business News (Honolulu)
    Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET Aug. 7, 2005


    State officials want to block a dental school from opening next year
    in Kapolei because of its affiliation with a pharmacy school operating
    without accreditation.

    Pacific Educational Services, dba Hawaii College of Pharmacy, is
    planning the groundbreaking this fall on the 120,000-square-foot
    Hawaii College of Dental Medicine, which would be the state's first
    dental college. It is set to open in September 2006.

    The pharmacy school is being sued by the state Office of Consumer
    Protection for alleged unfair and deceptive business practices for
    charging its 240 students $28,000 each for classes that may be
    worthless.

    The dental school's affiliation with the pharmacy school has put state
    regulators on alert, but there is little they can do. Hawaii has no
    laws governing private colleges and technical schools, essentially
    relying on the marketplace and professional accreditation to regulate
    them.

    "I'm not sure what the state can do to stop it. It's probably
    something we as a state haven't dealt with in the past," said Mark
    Greer, head of the dental health division of the state Department of
    Health. "Given this experience, we need to develop a mechanism to make
    sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again."

    The Office of Consumer Protection has filed a civil lawsuit asking the
    court to prevent Pacific Educational Services and its founders, Denise
    Criswell and David Monroe, from owning or operating any business in
    Hawaii until it is determined whether they should pay restitution and
    civil penalties in the pharmacy school case.

    Criswell and Monroe didn't return phone calls from PBN.

    "In some states, unaccredited universities are prohibited from
    operating period, in other states they're allowed to operate with very
    little government oversight," said Jeffrey Brunton, Office of Consumer
    Protection staff attorney. "We have little oversight. Our laws aren't
    the weakest in the country but by most accounts they're in the bottom
    five."

    An out-of-state corporation, like Nevada-based Pacific Educational
    Services, can apply online with the state's business registration
    division to obtain a certificate of authority and pay a $50 fee to do
    business in Hawaii.

    By comparison, California's Bureau for Private, Post Secondary and
    Vocational Education, part of the state Department of Consumer
    Affairs, regulates most schools that aren't accredited by the regional
    Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

    California requires that these schools meet minimum standards for
    educational quality and financial stability and oversee staff
    qualifications, finances and student achievement. The bureau
    investigates student complaints and conducts on-site visits and
    unannounced inspections.

    "It can't be a fly-by-night school, it's got to be real," said bureau
    spokesman Miles Bristow, adding that the agency regulates about 3,000
    schools, which enroll an estimated 400,000 students.

    The founding dean of the proposed Hawaii dental school is trying to
    distance the college from its association with the controversial
    pharmacy school.

    "You have to draw the distinction that the dental school is not tied
    into the business plan of the pharmacy school," said Raymond Rawson,
    adding that the college is on track to apply for accreditation in
    October. "The issues that have been raised have been raised about the
    pharmacy school, not about the dental school. The dental school is
    doing things in a correct manner, pursuing proper review of
    accreditation."

    Rawson maintains the school will not accept students until it receives
    accreditation from the American Dental Association Commission on
    Dental Accreditation. Students must have a minimum of 90 hours of
    undergraduate courses following standard American Dental Association
    acceptance guidelines, but it is preferred that they have a bachelor's
    degree.

    The school is accepting applications through a national application
    clearinghouse, Associated American Dental Schools Application Service,
    which is sponsored by the American Dental Education Association.

    Rawson said the school has received 500 applicants with 180 fully
    processed, but likely will enroll fewer than 100 students in its first
    class.

    Unlike the private for-profit pharmacy school, the planned dental
    college will be a nonprofit organization, he said.

    "There will never be a profit taken at the dental school," Rawson
    said. "The dental school has been honorable in what they've done, they
    haven't advertised or cashed any money and there's been no money
    deposited so there's been no student money spent."

    However, the dental school is collecting a $100 processing fee in
    addition to the application fee charged by the clearinghouse.

    Rawson's involvement with the proposed dental college has been
    scrutinized because he is a gaming commissioner in Nevada, where he
    lives. He also lives part-time in Makakilo.

    Rawson was a long-time Republican state senator in Nevada and is a
    board member of the American Legacy Foundation with Gov. Linda Lingle,
    whom he said was informed about plans to start the dental school.

    Rawson teaches two classes without compensation at the University of
    Nevada, Las Vegas, where he helped start the School of Dental
    Medicine. He is an emeritus professor in the University and Community
    College System of Nevada and up until two years ago was deputy coroner
    and chief dental examiner for Clark County.

    Rawson says he was initially recruited last year by Criswell and
    Monroe as a consultant to conduct feasibility studies for a dental
    school in Hawaii.

    "There's a genuine need for professional dental education and if the
    dental school is given a fair chance it will demonstrate that," he
    said.

    However, state officials say it's unlikely the dental school will
    receive accreditation because of Hawaii's limited population base and
    laws that don't allow unlicensed dental students to treat patients.

    "It's very frustrating for Hawaii -- we're not a Caribbean country,
    we're not South America where they have offshore medical, dental and
    veterinary schools set up. It's almost like they're looking at us as
    that sort of situation," Greer said.

    (c) 2005 MSNBC.com

    URL: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8866583
     

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