07-31-2008, 09:31 AM
Bound to be among the first of many "I was duped" stories. Sure you were, pal. 
Quote:Local educator turns up in diploma-mill case
Tuesday, July 29, 2008 10:08 PM
By Charlie Boss and Encarnacion Pyle
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The head of a Franklin County education group received a bogus doctorate in 2002, but he says he never tried to use the diploma.
“I was duped,” said Bart G. Anderson, superintendent of the Education Service Center of Franklin County.
The Spokesman-Review newspaper named Anderson Tuesday among nearly 10,000 people who bought or sought to buy counterfeit high-school or college degrees from a diploma mill in Spokane, Wash.
Anderson confirmed that he had applied to an online diploma program at St. Regis University in 2002 but said he was surprised when a bogus doctorate arrived instead of admission to an academic program.
“I knew immediately that this can't be,” said Anderson, who was superintendent of Port Clinton schools at the time. He eventually received his doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006.
Anderson said he never put his St. Regis diploma on any job applications, including for the Educational Service Center in 2004, or his resume.
After the diploma arrived, he called and e-mailed St. Regis in hopes of getting a refund on the $200 he paid in application fees.
Anderson said he got no response and lodged a complaint with a business-watchdog group in Washington. He could not remember the name of the group Tuesday but said he had offered to testify to shut down the diploma mill.
Just because someone's name appears on the list of buyers or potential buyers linked to the diploma mill doesn't mean he has committed a crime, said Jack Zurlini, an assistant state attorney general in Washington.
“They may not have purchased a degree or they may not have used the false degree,” Zurlini said.
According to the Spokesman-Review, eight people who set up and operated the diploma mill, including mastermind Dixie Ellen Randock, were convicted of federal crimes.
Investigators from a law-enforcement task force that worked the case will forward the names of potential buyers to all 50 state attorneys general, as well as to several other state agencies.
Ohio officials said they haven't received the list yet.
Once they do, they'll have to determine whether “a fraud has been committed, by whom and what kind of damages resulted,” said Jim Gravelle, spokesman for the Ohio attorney general's office.
Officials with the Ohio Department of Education said Anderson doesn't have an obligation under his superintendent's license to report suspicions about a diploma mill.
Tom Ash, director of governmental relations at the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, said Anderson took the appropriate route by notifying a business-watchdog group.
“What you want to find out is if they are selling something under false pretenses,” he said.
Anderson said he told members of the Educational Service Center board about the situation last year, when investigators questioned him about the diploma mill.
Board President Joyce Galbraith said, “I've been on this board 20 years and we were very impressed with his qualifications — none of which had anything to do with (St. Regis) university. We have the highest respect for him and know that there was no way he would have done this knowingly.”