Vocational School Swindled Students, Van de Kamp Says

State officials have accused a Los Angeles vocational school of bilking thousands of students by attracting them under false pretenses, then saddling them with federal loans for “pathetically inadequate” training.

A civil suit against National Technical College, with campuses downtown and in North Hollywood, is the first in a series planned against alleged “crooked” vocational school operators, state Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp said Thursday at a press conference.

“We’re going to turn the heat way up on these classroom con artists,” Van de Kamp said, adding that he has also proposed legislation to help deal with the problem.

Anatoly Bidny, owner of the Los Angeles school, did not return calls from The Times. But David Kujawa, director at the downtown campus at 600 S. Spring St., labeled the charges “false.”

The suit, filed this week in Superior Court, seeks $1 million in civil penalties and restitution for more than 1,000 students, many of them poor or newcomers to the country, who were allegedly misled into enrolling at the school after responding to help-wanted newspaper ads offering high-paying jobs, Van de Kamp said. Other students were recruited through door-to-door soliciting.

Students were immediately signed up for federal loans ranging from $3,000 to $6,000 for the courses. They were also promised stipends or part-time work while attending classes and placement in good jobs upon graduation--little of which materialized, Van de Kamp said.

A series of articles about the rampant exploitation by such schools, which appeared in The Times a year ago, noted that American taxpayers also are victimized by unscrupulous school operators. At the time, there was more than $1 billion in uncollectible government-guaranteed student loans outstanding and more than 6,100 for-profit vocational schools in the United States serving about 1.2 million students.

Terry Johnson, 22, who completed a dental lab technician course at the school, said he was attracted by a newspaper ad that proclaimed: “Earn while you learn.” He had recently moved here from his native Georgia and was desperate for a job, he said.

The only work referrals he and others received while attending the school were to low-paying jobs at fast-food restaurants and phone soliciting agencies, said Johnson, who also attended the press conference. Even after graduation, he said, the only offers he received were for jobs paying below the minimum wage by employers who told him his training was inadequate.

“I haven’t gotten anything out of the training,” said Johnson, who now works at a health spa. “And I’m still paying the loan.”

Johnson was one of the relatively few to graduate from the school. Typically, students drop out before completing what Van de Kamp called “bogus” courses for jobs such as medical assistant, computer repair technician or medical word processor.

The school suffers from a high turnover rate among teachers, does not furnish students with adequate equipment and materials and does not offer courses in students’ native languages as promised, the attorney general said.

In Debt, No Prospects

“At the end of this disheartening experience, the students wind up owing thousands of dollars to the federally insured lenders and they have no prospects for landing jobs that will allow them to repay the loans,” Van de Kamp said.

School director Kujawa, however, countered that since he arrived at the school a year ago, there has been little turnover among teachers and the vast majority of graduates are placed in good jobs. He also denied that the school uses misleading techniques to attract students.

“Like any vocational school, we use employment agencies to find students to come to the college,” he said. “But if we find that an agency is doing anything misleading, we immediately discontinue using them.”

Pending a court hearing set for the end of the month, Van de Kamp obtained a temporary court order freezing the school’s funds. This will prevent them from being used other than for the school’s operation, said Assistant Atty. Gen. Margaret Reiter. The school, which has about 700 students enrolled, will be allowed to continue operating as long as it complies with the court’s orders, Reiter said.

Legislation sponsored by Van de Kamp and carried by Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) would institute measures for tighter monitoring of the schools. Among other things, the bill mandates a minimum 60% graduation rate at the schools and a 70% job-placement rate after graduation. It also authorizes the state superintendent of schools to close down schools found in violation of state standards.