Who says Utah ranks at the nation's bottom for educating children?

A federal probe has found that the state is among the country's leaders for abusive wilderness programs that apparently see Iraq's Abu Ghraib as a model for treating troubled teens. One program put hoods over kids' heads and nooses around their necks.

The director of the General Accounting Office testified to a congressional committee:

We found torture and abuse of youth across the United States.

The GAO found thousands of cases of abuse and dozens of deaths at the wilderness programs nationwide. Of the 10 deaths the GAO probed, five occurred in Utah. Rep. George Miller, chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, says:

It is hard to believe people would do this to somebody else's child.

One case of abuse involved a Utah program, the Whitmore Academy. In 2004, the program's owner ordered other teens to punch and kick a California 15-year-old who was later forced to sleep in a closet. The owners of the Juab County home are now barred from operating another teen help program — but only in Juab County.