DENVER, COLORADO, March 1, 2015 (New York Times): A debate has roiled Colorado’s growing yoga world, pitting studio owners like Annie Prasad Freedom against a government agency that says programs that train yoga teachers must be certified, just like schools that prepare barbers, cosmetologists and truck drivers. “I get pretty fired up about this new thing with the government,” said Ms. Freedom, 45, sitting outside her studio, Samadhi Center for Yoga and Meditation. “How can you have people who know nothing about yoga regulating yoga schools?”
Studio owners say the rules — which involve paying hundreds of dollars in fees and submitting curriculums for approval — will cut into their into tiny profits and limit their yogic creativity. But officials of the state agency, the Division of Private Occupational Schools, say they are trying to protect aspiring teachers from fraudulent and unsafe programs. And they point to the case of Bikram Choudhury, a well-known yoga teacher accused of sexually assaulting students, as evidence that schools need government supervision.
The fight here is just the latest in a continuing debate over whether yoga instructor training programs should fall under the supervision of state agencies that certify occupational schools. The number of teacher training schools has exploded in recent years, jumping nearly 20 percent in 2014 alone, according to the Yoga Alliance, a nonprofit industry group. (The group counted 3,492 schools worldwide at the end of 2014.)
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