A Vancouver private school that teaches the philosophies of Scientology inventor L. Ron Hubbard has received thousands of dollars in government funding, government records show.

And another school affiliated with Hubbard's teachings -- which hasn't been receiving government funding -- dissolved itself Dec. 24 in order to merge with the funded school.

Scientology has come under fire around the world. It's banned in Germany. And the Toronto church and several members were convicted in 1992 of infiltrating government and police offices and stealing tens of thousands of files.

The High Court of London has called it "corrupt, sinister and dangerous," while Justice Andersen of the Supreme Court of Victoria in Australia called it "the world's largest organization of unqualified persons engaged in the practice of dangerous techniques which masquerade as mental therapy."

The Heritage 3R's School at 200-2010 East 48th Avenue received a grant of $85,725 during the last fiscal year, said Debbie Naubert, a communications officer with the education ministry.

The president of the society operating the school is Gus Wollitzer of Riverside Drive in North Vancouver. Wollitzer's wife Verna said her husband was out of town and not available, but confirmed theHeritage 3R's school is merging with another Hubbard-related school, the Effective Education School and Tutoring Association, which has been teaching children in Vancouver and Richmond. Effective Education advertises in the Yellow Pages, offering tutors for "study skills for life, also ESL classes." Verna Wollitzer said she and her husband are Scientologists.

The phone number of the 3R's school has been changed to the number of the Effective Education school. There, a recorded message says callers have reached "Effective Education." Messages left on the machine by The Sun were not returned this week.

One of the directors of Effective Education is Doug Kerr, who lives in the same Blenheim Street home as Reverend Susan Kerr, the top-ranking official with the Church of Scientology in Vancouver, according to government records.

Joel Hohner is the director of special affairs with the Church of Scientology. "We just handle any external things for the church," said Hohner, adding that the merger was due to the popularity of the schools. "Basically they were getting a whole bunch of new students . . so they basically combined their staff so they could handle the new students."

Hohner said no more information will be available until school officials return to work Jan. 5. Gerry Ensing, director of the independent schools branch in Victoria, said the 3R's school has been reviewed and meets the criteria laid out by government, including being a non-profit organization with qualified teachers and regular inspections.

Ensing said inspections determined the 3R's school doesn't contravene guidelines that prohibit the promotion of racial or ethnic superiority, religious persecution or violence.

He said the Effective Education school had not sought funding under current government criteria, and that it informed his office in October that it was merging with the 3R's school this year.

"We will definitely stop by the school this year to take a look as to what is really happening there," Ensing said. "It will happen in the new year, you can be assured of that."

Government guidelines don't prohibit schools from being associated with controversial organizations, Ensing said. "We're simply looking at what the act says. If some time in the future the act changes, then we will look at that. "If there are any concerns that anybody has that we should know about, then by all means let us know. Obviously we can't do anything about it unless we're told about it."

Private schools that qualify for government funding receive $2,700 per student, Ensing said. The 3R's school received $42,007 during 1995-96 and $27,117 the previous year, according to the provincial Public Accounts records.

While the Effective Education school and the 3R's school freely reveal their connections to L. Ron Hubbard, neither advertise any connection to the Church of Scientology.

Both schools note they use the "Hubbard method" of education developed by L. Ron Hubbard, the deceased science fiction writer who invented a "science of the mind" called Dianetics, and a church to go with it called Scientology, in the early 1950s.

The schools say they're affiliated with an organization called Applied Scholastics, and are featured on the same Internet site as Narconon and The Way to Happiness campaign, all Hubbard-related organizations. Burnaby mother Marilyn Whitford said she enrolled her daughter in the Richmond Effective Education school in 1990, unaware of its connections to Hubbard or to criticisms of Scientology. Then 10, her daughter was doing poorly in public school, the private Catholic schools in the area were fully booked and Whitford spotted an ad for the private Effective Education school in a local newspaper, she said.

Whitford has an enrolment form the school asked her to sign, which said in part: "I understand that this is a Hubbard Method of Education School, and have no disagreements with any of my child's education being based on the study and educational philosophies and technologies developed by L. Ron Hubbard."

By 1991, the school required all parents enrolling their children "to have done a study course in L. Ron Hubbard's study technology."

Whitford removed her daughter from the school after learning of the school's connections to Hubbard and his teachings.

Court cases throughout the world have been told that students of Hubbard's teachings are urged to take courses at "fixed donations" of thousands of dollars for each level.

At the highest levels of the courses, according to court documents, students are taught that 75 million years ago, a galactic ruler called Xenu banished to earth spirits called thetans, which were imprisoned in volcanoes, and sealed by exploding hydrogen bombs. The volcanoes erupted, the thetans invaded humankind and now, only through Hubbard's teachings can individuals free themselves of the negative "engrams" of the occupying spirits.

Justice Latey of the London High Court found Scientology "is out to capture people and to indoctrinate and brainwash them so that they become the unquestioning captives and tools of the cult, withdrawn from ordinary thought, living and relationships with others." The CBS television program 60 Minutes ran a feature Sunday revealing how Scientology had taken over the Chicago-based Cult Awareness Network, which for 20 years has helped parents worried their children may have joined a dangerous cult.