Parents’ fears after top fee-paying school teams up with Bitcoin fanatic
Lomond School, a fee-paying private school in Helensburgh charging up to £48,000 a year, has entered a "long-term partnership" with Scholarium, a Swiss-based organisation run by Iranian-Austrian lecturer Rahim Taghizadegan that promotes "Bitcoin citadels", tax avoidance and "unschooling". The deal has alarmed parents, who say they were given little transparency about the arrangement and only learned of Taghizadegan's controversial views after the agreement had already been signed, raising questions about the due diligence carried out by school leaders.
The move follows the collapse of three previous partnership attempts with other educational organisations, including one with the QED Schools Group agreed just six months earlier, and comes as the school's accounts are three months overdue amid an existing £3.5million debt secured against its assets. Taghizadegan, who also heads the Free Cities Foundation and the Bitcoin Association Switzerland, has promoted "flag theory" as a means of legally avoiding tax and has cited Austrian economist Hermann Hoppe, who has faced criticism over remarks about gay people and links to white supremacists, as a mentor. Parents said they feared the school, some 300 pupils aged three to 18, was acting out of financial desperation without adequately vetting its new partner; Taghizadegan has denied having any "hidden ideological or curricular agenda" for the school.
- Debt-laden Lomond School partners with Bitcoin advocate Rahim Taghizadegan's Scholarium.
- Parents alarmed by his tax-avoidance, anti-democracy and "unschooling" views.
- Deal follows collapse of three earlier partnerships and £3.5m school debt.
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Lomond School in Helensburgh is a private school charging fees of up to £48,000 a year for around 300 pupils aged three to eighteen. It has entered a long-term partnership with Scholarium, an organisation based in Switzerland and led by Rahim Taghizadegan, a lecturer who promotes ideas such as "Bitcoin citadels", legal tax-avoidance strategies known as "flag theory", and an alternative approach to education called "unschooling".
The partnership matters because it follows the breakdown of three earlier attempts by the school to team up with other education providers, one of which fell through only six months before this deal was struck. It also comes while the school's published accounts are overdue and it carries £3.5million of debt secured against its property, prompting some parents to question the school's financial position and whether proper checks were made before the agreement was signed.
Taghizadegan also runs two other bodies, the Free Cities Foundation and the Bitcoin Association Switzerland, and has spoken of being influenced by the economist Hermann Hoppe, whose past comments and associations have drawn criticism. Parents say they were not given full details of the arrangement in advance and only found out about Taghizadegan's views afterwards, while Taghizadegan has said the school has no hidden agenda for what pupils are taught.
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The case for
Supporters of the school's decision might argue that independent schools facing financial pressure are entitled to explore innovative partnerships that bring in new revenue, broaden the curriculum, and expose pupils to financial literacy and entrepreneurial thinking relevant to a changing economy. They could point out that Taghizadegan has explicitly denied any hidden ideological or curricular agenda, and that a partner organisation's leader holding controversial personal views on tax or politics does not automatically mean those views will shape classroom teaching. On this view, the school should be judged on the substance of what is actually taught and the outcomes for pupils, rather than on guilt by association with a partner's wider network or beliefs.
The case against
Parents raising concerns could reasonably argue that when a school is entrusted with children's education and charges fees of up to £48,000 a year, governors owe families full transparency and rigorous vetting before committing to any long-term partnership, particularly one involving figures who promote tax avoidance and have cited a mentor accused of troubling views. They might see the timing, following three collapsed partnerships and amid a £3.5million debt and overdue accounts, as evidence the school is acting out of financial desperation rather than sound educational judgement. For these parents, the failure to disclose Taghizadegan's background until after the deal was signed represents a serious lapse in governance that undermines trust, regardless of his subsequent denials of any hidden agenda.