My wife recently told me about an established international HS that suddenly shuttered its campus mid-semester, apparently it's causing quite a ripple effect and unwanted attention from the government and society at large.

Anybody with first hand information and would like to share? All I can get are rumors and speculations.

In Kunming?

Yup, sorry for not being explicit.

From the reports, in essence, the school ran out of funding, weren't able to pay the teachers despite have just received a year's tuition upfront, and the bosses skipped town.

This coupled with another similar situation, this time in Beijing, could mark the beginning of a declining market? Just trying to see if this is a one-off or part of a bigger pattern.

It is not a rumor. There is a H.S. in the south that had an international division and it was closed down. The owner took the tuition money and left. My wife showed me the article a few months ago so I can't find it now.
If I find it I will post it.
I think this is the school.
baijiahao.baidu.com/[...]

Presume HS mean High School? (...we're not all Americans!)

This was the one in the East of the city. We had the parents turning up at the Education ministry. Although I wasn't there at the time as it was over the Christmas/New Year Holiday otherwise I could shed a bit more light on it.

As far as I know the local education of that district got everyone into new schools. Whether they were able to get better/similar schools I don't know. Private education is a money pit for investors and parents, I wouldn't be surprised if a second one goes within 2019 as there is at least one more on the ropes at present.

It was always going to be a possibility which is why the local government stopped giving these private "international schools" new licences since Chinese New Year 2016.

What else would H.S. mean when the topic is about 'school'?

:-)

Hope they catch the thief and make his face very public. Running an educational institution as a profit-making(?) business is a bad idea anyway, IMHO.

@LiuMingKe
Horticultural Secondary?
Holistic Subjects?
Human Society?

;-)

@Ocean Yes, I meant HS, I assumed that was common knowledge. So what do the Brits and the Commonwealth call it, Secondary School, SS? And sorry about you not being American. ;-)

@Liumingke1234 That link was similar to what my wife had read. I guess I was just trying to confirm the details by someone in the know. My main curiosity is trying to determine if the failure was due to poor management or a changing market condition.

@Napolean By "we", I assume you worked there when this happened? So would you say it was poor management that did them in or was it the market simply wasn't there to support such a school in Kunming.