Scams "Fascinating" Says Bear

[Dennis Ruhl]

Cogito gets banned? Certainly he's shown far less than other posters (assuming they are actually different people). Or is it his targets?

You do notice that you do not have a forum named after you even though you have rated having one. And you must notice that you haven't been punted - yet. You have a small degree of respect around here because you actually did follow the alternate education route although paying $30,000 for the NCA HLC sticker on your PhD was a bit rich. Hey guy - you're one of us..

[dooglearse]

You do notice that you do not have a forum named after you even though you have rated having one. And you must notice that you haven't been punted - yet. You have a small degree of respect around here because you actually did follow the alternate education route although paying $30,000 for the NCA HLC sticker on your PhD was a bit rich. Hey guy - you're one of us..

Accreditation is about quality assurance and degree recognition. The price is irrelevant because the alternative is fakery. And that doesn't cut it at any (discounted) price.

As for not having a forum, I assumed it was because, compared to the ones who have one, I haven't done much of note--I'm really not worth talking about. (Also, I'm not at all active in this field.)

And not being punted yet? A mystery. But I'd like to stick around. We'll see.

[bigfoot]

California Pacific University is now going about the business of making it's students take "proctored exams", to augment it's already strong and comprehensive distance education curriculum. I believe these exams are finals, which are to be taken prior to completion of each distance learning course. A good university is burgeoning into a great one..keep up the great work CPU

[bigfoot]

Accreditation may be about degree recognition for one reason only.... because a "few (self-serving) pundits" have poisoned society into believing that anything less than regional accreditation is either scorned by society or fake! State Approved schools have provided DL for decades, and have gotten pretty good at it...for a far more reasonable price than the bloated competitor, who pays for advertising on billboards, in magazines, trade journals, cable television slots and advertising at MOVIE houses (of all places)...what's next?....What's next is a degree that costs 3-4x more than a legal, valid state approved degree that provides an educational alternative, that is every bit as good and sometimes better than some of these overpriced RA schools. Believe me, I had a friend who got an MBA from Phoenix.... he told me that he basically learned NOTHING at UofP, and the graduate degree cost him over 30 K!...Think before you leap!

[bigfoot]

I went back and read California Pacific's bio...it reads very nicely. A couple of years ago Bear/Klempner was instrumental in linking up words like "diploma mill" and illegal" when referring to California State Approved Schools. I believe he has been banned from tampering with the bio's of these schools.. I think in the past he would add stuff, that caste certain schools in a bad light. I'm glad he has been thwarted by Wikipedia from his continued defamation against state approved post-secondary institutions of higher learning. He's a slimeball...

[bigfoot]

I bet that Bear/Klempner and Contreras were very disappointed when the BPPE was reformed and once again was providing "state approval" and "oversight" to many post secondary institutions in California that lacked RA. Now even the federal government is found championing the "state approval" process in California, this must really chap their collective hides (ROTFLOL)!..... I have always felt that the BPPE should seek na/ra accreditation that is recognized by the DOE. Much like New York state, which has a state approved process, similar to California's,... that is recognized as a "valid form" of federally recognized accreditation. This would only strengthen that which is good..and would make it that much better. Much to the chagrin of Bear/Klempner.

[jamesc1]

Bear always seemed able to land on his feet no matter how he fell off the building. He and Conty will simply say they were right and the new changes wrong. I've tried giving them facts and numbers and it meant nothing. They will just tell you that you are wrong and are ignorant. Many people have posted long reasonable replies to their crap to have them say nope you're wrong. You can't argue with people who have an agenda. Bear's thing was always about HIM. Bear had to look good no matter how he had to fudge facts and history or what he was required to say.

To be blunt. You can't argue with a vain, snotty, self absorbed dickhead. Especially if the guy is looking to be paid for being one.

---

State approved schools were never degree mills as some would claim (mostly people who have bottom end RA degrees). Bear used the term State Approved many years to show schools as being good. It was a very huge turn when he then started using the same form of recognition, and it is recognition, to say it's bad to useless.

Bear wanted to shift over to accredited schools to look for new ways of making money so it was time for the state recognized schools to be dumped. Next he stopped saying accredited was good, it had to be regional accreditation.

So we have these three steps.
1-It has to be state recognized to be good.
2-Now it must be accredited to be good.
3-Next it must be regionally accredited to be good.

Here is what I think. It has to pay well, and then Bear will say it's good.

Most people wanted degrees for self-satisfaction or to top off a career. They didn't give a damn about accredited or state licensed. They wanted legal, not too difficult, not too expensive, but not a mill. Bear knew this and gave them what they wanted. When that market got away from him and others started making big bucks from that idea he turned away from state legal and turned to accredited. Follow the dollars and you will find the old boy's trail and what he claims to believe.

[bigfoot]

Well said James. It was most interesting through discovery, to find that the validity and "legality" of the school is due to each state "recognizing" and authorizing the school to "not only exist", but to confer "valid" degrees...this constitutional protection and guarantee stems from the first and tenth amendment! Regional accreditation was a mechanism, that was developed, to ensure that schools were providing quality education, and certain educational goals were being met for the students in attendance. Outside of this non-governmental scope, they had no authority other than to report that some schools were good...some not so good. Later, the government wisely sought to use these independent, educational consultants, (for lack of a better term), to ensure that the students would benefit and could receive various governmental loans and grants, because the academic institution was deemed to be solid academically, based on the RA seal of approval. Somewhere though, the system broke down and surprisingly enough, the Bear/Klempners and Contreras', of the "distance educational", fold don't seem to address that! Stands to reason they wouldn't, somebody would rather they torpedo the non RA schools, to ensure that distance learning students only "choose", the bottom feeder schools with RA, no matter how overpriced and market driven they are. I worked with a guy for a number of years, he got his MBA at Phoenix for over 30K....he told me the education was a joke and he felt he learned next to nothing. One would hope that when you acquire a "masters" degree you have some mastery of this discipline and can speak with some level of expertise, when asked about your formal education, especially if you are sporting a graduate degree.

[jamesc1]

To be honest I really don't care what form of recognitin a school has or doesn't have. If RA is what someone wants, fine, but don't then turn around with a bottom feeder RA school and start doing the, "I'm better than you because........mine is Barely RA. By the way, of course, barely RA ain't Harvard, despite what Bear may say.

Why some people are just dying to attack some retired businessman because he wanted a degree at the end of his work career is beyond me, or why it is necessary to say a man in private business needs to spend 6 months dealing with Excelsior rather than a State Approved school is another mystery. Bear properly realized that most of his would-be customers had no interest in spending 4 years taking online courses leading to BA's from Penn. State or some other big state college. Let's face it the new trend is towards doing the same level and type of work as is required at some large brick and mortar residence college. Since it is done online it may take 4-6 years to finish the degree. This is not what Bear found and exploited. As for me the state licensed approach was just fine, the price-time-quality, it worked for me. If I'm to be required to do everything the same as a residence school it would be just as well to go there.

Another fact Bear has dropped is life experience. He was co-founder of schools and also had an interest/stock/ in others. All had the same theme. If you already knew it there was no reason to do it over again. Seems Bear has left that little part of history behind. It was the life experience that allowed one to move quickly through a degree program. Try asking one of those big RA colleges to let you slide through in a year or less. Ok, no one is saying all the state schools were great, but, they were something, sometimes good, sometimes fair, and sometimes not that good, but, they were what was wanted and Bear sold the hell out of them.

So, what do we have? People buying what they were told was adequate for most purposes, and that was and is correct. They are not frauds, not fools, and not trying to fool the world, just people who wanted legal degrees for limited reasons and for modest goals. They deserve better than what Bear is saying about them and their choices.

Hell he took their money (schools-and the guides). He should at least have the backbone to stand by his words. He either lied or told the truth. He can't claim the water is too hot and too cold all at the same time.

[bigfoot]

Beautifully stated James. Yeah..Bear/Klempner "cherry-picks" accordingly and than proceeds to talk out of two sides of his duplicitous pie-hole...I have found that "this" is what makes him consistently Bear/Klempner! Some of the very schools that Bear has torpedoed, allow students of these post secondary institutions, to stand for licensure as "nursing home administrators", "registered nurses" and "licensed clinical psychotherapists"... upon graduation. None of the schools, ("rather mills") that Bear has ever created, were worth a plugged sh*t!...That's why I suspect he is "bitter"....knowing that the DL world has "slowly yet inexorably" come to the conclusion that he peddles flim-flam and rubbish, nothing more... Knowing this continues to give me a barrels worth of entertainment! Ain't life grand!