Sounds like a pretty worthwhile, if not hefty, project. I would imagine that were you to apply yourself to the completion of such an endeavor, given the amount of pretend schools in China, that you would be quite busy. Yep, there's a ton of them - and more springing up all the time.

I think it's interesting that prior to 2004, or so I understand, training centers pretty much had their own run of things. Finally, the government realized that it would be smarter to allow them to register individually instead of requiring that they register under the auspices of a local university because that way they could make them pay taxes. Of course, few have bothered to register anyway. Why pay taxes when you're a fly by night operation? Many of these language mills open up just long enough to make a quick profit. Then they just change their name or move to another city and continue their scam.

I imagine that in your city alone there are new ones popping up everyday. Keeping a list current would be difficult under those circumstances. What I'd like to see, though, is a list of all the training centers, broken down into provinces/prefectures and cities. Next to the school's title would be verifiable names of current and prior teachers as references. Moreover, it should give the names of not only the school's managers but the school's owners as well. Of course this would be a pretty comprehensive list that would require the input of a lot of interested parties, but ultimately it could get done and if posted somewhere online where it could be kept current, it would be a valuable tool indeed - especially if it were to include a brief comment about each school. Ultimately, it could save a lot of teachers, seasoned and green alike, from making a serious error; moreover, the schools might clean up their act a little bit so that they could get a favorable rating on such a list.

But as I sit here in my warm, cushy apartment and reflect that I'm happy to not be working at a private language school, I find it hard to imagine that I would drum up enough energy to make something like the above happen. Actually, I can't imagine anyone drumming up enough energy. However, good luck on the first step; it may actually make a difference.