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I agree that there will be a demand for it. As the article said, a year-round school environment can help instill habits in a far better, more long-term way than a month at fat camp ever could. And it sounds like for many of these kids, the even bigger benefit than losing the weight is the fact that they are in an environment where they aren't humiliated by other people nearly as often.
(I've gotta admit that the rule about the only television being in the workout room and that you have to be moving to watch it is a dirty rotten trick -- but a brilliant one. Haha.)
However, I think the biggest problem that comes with a school for the obese is that, unlike fat camp or diets or things like that, it is not at all anonymous. Weight and especially weight loss can be such a personal thing in this country. If you end up at fat camp, the legacy of that won't follow you around forever -- but if you graduate from "that school for obese kids" that's going to be on your resume for a while, your college applications, etc.
I also agree that in many cases, family background plays too big of a role to be ignored. When these kids start losing weight, they also have to be educating the parents on what they have to do to make this change permanent.
And the tuition IS definitely on the high end, even when compared to many prestigious academic boarding schools. I know that obesity spans the entire socioeconomic spectrum, but am I wrong that it is more common in the middle and lower classes than the upper classes? If you put a price tag like that on losing weight, the majority of the population won't be able to afford it.
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