Christie signs 'diploma mill law'

[Armando Ramos]

Who cares what degrees the paper shufflers on the high school district have?  

If they have a degree, why do they deserve a raise at taxpayer expense?  If they want a degree, let them pay for it themselves.

Stop giving away taxpayer money to pols who are just padding their resumes and what do you bet the number of bureaucrats with bogus degrees drops to zero?   But then, it's not really about bogus degrees, is it.  It's about restricting competition and providing revenue sources to the higher ed cartel.

Christie signs "diploma mill law'
Freehold Regional staff's degrees spurred restrictions on raises
By LARRY HIGGS • STAFF WRITER • May 7, 2010

TRENTON — A bill signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie Thursday will prohibit school employees from profiting from degrees obtained from mail-order or unaccredited colleges.

The legislation, known as the diploma mill law, was inspired by the 2008 discovery that Freehold Regional High School District superintendent, H. James Wasser, and several current and former staff members received doctoral degrees from the online, unaccredited Breyer State University.

"This bill requires that our public school employees attend only accredited institutions if they wish to receive tuition assistance," state Sen. Jennifer Beck, R-Monmouth, said in a prepared statement. "Additional education should be rewarded, and this law ensures that those rewards only go to individuals attending accredited institutions, not some Internet-based diploma mill."

The state concluded in early September 2008 that Wasser, Assistant Superintendent Donna Evangelista and a former assistant superintendent must stop using their doctoral titles or face fines, which they complied with. Wasser relinquished his stipend and later apologized to the district.

The law requires several conditions be met for educators to receive tuition assistance and receive pay increases for higher degrees or other academic course work. The course or degree has to be related to an employees current or future job responsibilities and the institution must be accredited.

The law also requires either the superintendent of schools or, in the case of a superintendent, the Board of Education approve course work for which they're are seeking tuition assistance from the district.

"The cost of education is high enough in New Jersey, and there is far too much waste. I am personally very pleased that the governor has taken the correct action to turn off this particular leaky faucet," Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande, R-Monmouth, said in a prepared statement. "Our public school systems must be protected."

Wasser retires in June, ending 23 years in the district. He currently earns $215,000 a year in addition to benefits such as medical insurance and a vehicle.

[Virtual Bison]

Christie sounds like a real piece of work. This crap about punishing people for getting degrees from non-traditional colleges is going way too far.

With the demise of Warren-National, it seems like Breyer State is the leading unaccredited University. From what I understand its not really a bad one either.

[ham]

Christie sounds like a real piece of work. This crap about punishing people for getting degrees from non-traditional colleges is going way too far.

With the demise of Warren-National, it seems like Breyer State is the leading unaccredited University. From what I understand its not really a bad one either.

I do not sympathize AT ALL with these public service hacks who are fatly paid by me, shrewd enough to play politics but damn too stupid too earn a real degree.
They do not care about you, either.
YOU are the law-breaker, the scum with a forged degree who endangers our society...they are just riding the system and laughing about it with their peers in front of foi gras and homard.
When it become public, they confess to chopping down the cherry tree and cry in their champagne...

[RespectableGent]

Christie sounds like a real piece of work. This crap about punishing people for getting degrees from non-traditional colleges is going way too far.

With the demise of Warren-National, it seems like Breyer State is the leading unaccredited University. From what I understand its not really a bad one either.

Breyer does offer courses and workshops. From the syllabus and texts on the website, students do seem to be learning something way beyond nominal.

Places like Breyer, Kennedy-Western, and Canyon get a bad rap. I don't consider such degrees as "bogus".

[RespectableGent]

I found a news story about Hamilton University:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/0...4319.shtml

"Some of them actually really put a lot of work into this, really put a lot of work into their dissertation. I mean, seriously a lot of work."

If students are putting "a lot of work" and "seriously, a lot of work" in for their credential, what's the problem?

Why did the CHEA and federal government seek to shut it down? Truly, they are seeking to restrict competition. It sounds like students were doing much more work than at a regionally accredited shithole like Excelsior College, where one can obtain a credential in under three hours on a single substandard test.

[Yancy Derringer]

If students are putting "a lot of work" and "seriously, a lot of work" in for their credential, what's the problem?

Agree.  There may be a problem, but it's not for the government to decide.  We've all seen plenty of RA dissertations that were perfunctory, plagiarized, collaborated or outright lies and no government busy-bodies were tossing people in the clink over that.  Let the academic work speak for itself, without filtering it through government mind guards first.

[Virtual Bison]

Agree.  There may be a problem, but it's not for the government to decide.  We've all seen plenty of RA dissertations that were perfunctory, plagiarized, collaborated or outright lies and no government busy-bodies were tossing people in the clink over that.  Let the academic work speak for itself, without filtering it through government mind guards first.

This accredidation bullshit is really starting to get to me. You have POS schools which are accredited and selling micky mouse degrees and then some decent schools are labeled as diploma mills by the higher authorities just because they did not have the juice to get accredited. And in the end its the students who suffer.

And these government authorities who claim to know what is best for you and I are really quite worthless. This is no longer "of the people, by the people and for the people."

BTW Do you know whats really interesting? In California you can take the bar exam without setting foot in a law school. Its noteworthy that this was the case in the US and elsewhere in the old days. Lincoln never attended law school and neither did Clarence Darrow. Its also noteworthy that many graduates of law schools could not pass the bar exam. The current mayor of Chicago, Richard J Daley Jr. passed the bar exam on his third try.