Their next degree should be in media relations

by: Jason Springer

Tue Aug 19, 2008 at 09:47:40 AM EDT

Sometimes no comment leaves you with much more credibility than the words that actually come out of your mouth. Take for example, the latest statements by school administrators trying to defend their degrees received from "diploma mills". First we have Freehold Schools Superintendent James Wasser. This is the man who chastised a student earlier this year for not addressing him as "Dr":

Wasser insists he earned his degree online so he could save the taxpayers money and not take time away from his job. "I could have left my job at 2 o'clock in the afternoon," he said. "I chose not to. I could have cost the taxpayers a tremendous amount of money."

Come on, are you serious? You got an extra degree to help the taxpayers? Previously he has already defended his decision to get his degree in this manner:

"I did it. I would do it again. The only thing I would probably do differently is, now that I am aware of this word "accreditation,' I would thoroughly research that."

Now a school administrator doesn't know what accreditation is? I'm glad he's familiar with "this word" now, but he should become more familiar with the saying, "When you get in a hole, stop digging." Moving on from Wasser, we have Asbury Park acting superintendent James Parnham who received a "Masters of Arts" from another questionable school and described what he did to earn the degree:

Parnham said his degree was based on his life experience, and that it took him about a month to put his resume together to get the diploma.
Asked if he received his Almeda degree in return for merely submitting his resume, Parham said, "I also had to do a paper."
How long was the paper?
"The paper must have been about two, maybe three pages," he said.

It is an insult to listen to these people try to defend themselves. A whole month to put together a resume and a 2-3 page paper coupled with life experience? The next degree these people go for should be one in media relations, so they can learn when its better to not relate at all.

Discuss :: (6 Comments)

A Child's Stigma

[ADVERTISEMENT]

Quote of the Day: Diploma Mills still an option

by: Jason Springer

Sun Aug 17, 2008 at 06:35:08 PM EDT

The NJ Department of Education issued a report last week saying that Freehold administrators did not mean to deceive when they received degrees from a "diploma mill" at taxpayer expense in order to get a raise:

The Education Department in its report suggested -- but didn't require -- that school administrators in the future earn their degrees at reputable, accredited schools.

So it's still an option to get your degree from non-accredited schools if you'd like, according to the department of Education and they say they don't have the power to change it apparently:

Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said she doesn't have the authority to regulate what kind of degrees school boards allow when determining pay and benefits for administrators.
"It is wrong for people to use diploma mill degrees to increase their salaries. But I don't have the authority to stop them," Davy said.

It's wrong? That's it? If she doesn't have the power, then the Legislature or whoever else does should do more than offer faint condemnation. The response from the Education Department prompted today's quote of the day:

"I feel sorry for New Jersey. Here they had an opportunity to step up to the plate, and they opted not to. I would have thought New Jersey would have had a little more brass than that," Allen Ezell, a former FBI agent who investigated diploma mill fraud, told the Asbury Park Press for Sunday newspapers.

But until someone shows a little more brass as the FBI agent puts it, diploma mills will remain an option in New Jersey because no one seems to have the power or the will to change it.

Discuss :: (5 Comments)