College Credit

With college commencement season in full swing, thousands of students will culminate years of study by receiving their degrees at a pomp-filled ceremony. Others will just pay a few thousand dollars and get a degree in the mail from a school that may not even exist.

These so-called diploma mills are bilking people out of millions of dollars and enabling some to gain unwarranted promotions. Clearly, they should be put out of business.

Sen. Susan Collins, chair of the Senate’s Governmental Affairs Committee, has been investigating the problem for more than a year and held hearings on the topic this week. Since no one is in favor of keeping these fake schools in business, ending this abuse does not have to be complicated. Simply posting lists of accredited schools, for example, will help people avoid these fictitious institutions.

A recent review by the General Accounting Office, the review arm of Congress, turned up 28 high-level federal employees in eight different agencies with degrees from fictional or non-accredited schools. Three unaccredited schools that were part of the investigation reported that 463 current or former students were federal employees, most of them from the Department of Defense. The bill to taxpayers from two of the schools was nearly $170,000. As part of its investigation, the GAO obtained two fictitious degrees – a Bachelor of Science in biology and a master of science in medical technology – for Sen. Collins from nonexistent Lexington University for $1,515.

Government officials say cracking down on these diploma mills is difficult because while some schools clearly do not exist and simply send out fake degrees to those who pay for them, others do offer real courses, although the quality of instruction is lacking. Such institutions typically count life experience, such as jury duty or horseback riding, toward degree requirements.

Either way, federal taxpayers should not be footing the bill for meaningless degrees. The simplest way to end this practice is to require that the federal government only pay tuition to have its employees take classes or receive degrees from schools accredited by nationally known accrediting agencies like the New England Association of Schools and Colleges or the other five regional accreditation bodies.

At the suggestion of the Governmental Affairs Committee, the Department of Education has already agreed to prepare an online list of such accredited schools that can be accessed by employers and those thinking of taking classes or earning degrees. The Office of Personnel Management is already offering training sessions to government officials on recognizing diploma mill degrees and handling instances where government employees have obtained them.

For those who earned their degrees the hard way, ending diploma mill abuse could be the best graduation present.