The American Association for Higher Education and Accreditation began in 1870. Or so says its Web site.

But that claim, along with a number of others, falls apart on close inspection. For example, though it lists a Washington, D.C., location, that address turns out to be a UPS mailbox. Its actual headquarters are in Central Florida.

Most significantly, AAHEA has assumed the identity of a now-defunct organization with a similar name—the American Association for Higher Education. It has even acquired AAHE's old phone number. That comes as an unpleasant surprise to AAHE's former leadership, including Michael B. Goldstein, a higher-education lawyer with the Washington law firm Dow Lohnes, and a former member of AAHE's board. "Some of their activities appear, on their face, to be clearly unacceptable," he said.

What are those activities? AAHEA's Web site says the group is "dedicated to the advancement of higher education." However, its only stated goal for 2008 is dealing with "the problem of bullying in school." Under the heading "Sponsored Programs," a collage of photographs features the twin towers of the World Trade Center in flames, and what appear to be bloody footprints. Beneath it are the words "To be announced."

A Chronicle investigation has raised questions about AAHEA, which advertises itself as both a scholarly research organization and a college accreditor. It has also led to the resignation of Charles Grant, the group's chief executive, after just a week in office.

The apparent operator of AAHEA is D.A. (Doc) Brady. While his name is nowhere to be found on AAHEA's Web site, he is listed in the corporate records for AAHEA, filed with the State of Florida in 2007.

In several interviews and e-mail exchanges, Mr. Brady defended his organization against critics he contends are biased against him. He said he and his colleagues were motivated solely by the personal satisfaction of running AAHEA, not by any monetary considerations. "Not a single person has benefited a nickel out of this thing," said Mr. Brady.

It's not for lack of trying. The association offers annual memberships for $99, and its Web site includes a page for visitors to make donations, ranging from $10 to $1-million (those who give the top amount become honorary presidents of AAHEA). Among the programs in the works, which the money will support, according to the Web site, are safari trips to Africa, online art shows, and a "Learning Course of the month contest."

Fuzzy Details

When asked about his background, Mr. Brady said it's "none of your business." An online biography describes him as self-taught, but also says he holds doctorates in clinical hypnotherapy and business administration, though it does not mention the institutions from which he graduated. According to the bio, he has worked as a consultant for television programs, including Dr. Phil, and is a "nationally certified motivational instructor."

Mr. Brady is the chief executive of the National Board of Professional and Ethical Standards, which offers doctorates in clinical hypnotherapy, among other degrees. The doctoral program costs $4,998 and uses the Ericksonian method of hypnosis. According to its frequently-asked-questions page, the organization is under review for accreditation from Mr. Brady's other organization, AAHEA, which it notes is "very old."

Charles Grant said he responded to an advertisement for the position of chief executive of the group. Mr. Grant had just retired from San Jacinto College North, a community college in Houston, after 25 years. He started there as an instructor and ended as its president. The idea of helping a higher-education organization like the association, he said, appealed to him. "I'm a sympathetic person," said Mr. Grant.

When pressed, Mr. Grant said he had no idea how many members the group had, or what exactly it did. Nor had he ever met Doc Brady in person, or anyone else from the organization. He didn't know its financial state or where it was located. He was also not aware of Mr. Brady's other organizations.

Mr. Grant said that he had not received any money from AAHEA, but that he had been told he would receive a salary. A few days after his interview with The Chronicle, Mr. Grant sent an e-mail message to AAHEA with the subject line "Not Working," resigning from the position, and forwarded a copy to The Chronicle.

Connection Disputed

All along, AAHEA has claimed that it is the same entity as the American Association for Higher Education. In fact, AAHE, which promoted the scholarship of teaching and learning for nearly four decades, closed its doors in 2005 after a sharp decline in membership.

Its president at the time was Clara M. Lovett. Ms. Lovett, who is president emerita of Northern Arizona University, said she had never heard of AAHEA. Neither had Mr. Goldstein, the AAHE board member. Both disputed the notion that AAHEA is in any way the continuation of AAHE.

Other assertions by Mr. Brady have also been contradicted. For example, he said that the archives of AAHE, housed at the Hoover Institution Archives at Stanford University, are scheduled to be transferred to AAHEA's headquarters once there is sufficient space.

Not so, according to Brad Bauer, associate archivist for collection development and curator of the Western European collections at Hoover. Mr. Bauer, who is in charge of the AAHE archives, said he had heard "nothing of the sort" and that any such transfer would be extremely unusual. "I've had no discussions of any sort with any organization claiming to be the successor to AAHE," he said.

Mr. Brady has also said that his organization is going through the review process to become an approved college accreditor. Jane Glickman, an Education Department spokeswoman, said that a check revealed that the department had had no contact with AAHEA. Jan Riggs, director of membership services and special projects for the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, said she had been contacted by Mr. Brady but that she "had no idea what he was talking about."

In response, Mr. Brady criticized the approval process for accreditors, saying it was too cumbersome. "I think it's retarded," he said. In an e-mail message, he indicated that his association may be reconsidering becoming an approved accreditor because it's "not worth all of this aggravation."

It is unclear how many members AAHEA has signed up, or whether the group has received donations. Michael F. Healy, who works in the marketing and communications department at the University of Georgia's Center for Continuing Education, said he contacted AAHEA recently because he was interested in purchasing its mailing list. He was told that he must become a member first. A colleague at another university, Mr. Healy said, paid the association $1,000 for its mailing list. He declined to name the colleague.

Along with its other problems, AAHEA appears to have borrowed material on its Web site without attribution. In June a law firm working for the Accrediting Council for Continuing Education & Training—an accreditor recognized by the Education Department—sent the association a letter demanding that it remove documents it had copied directly from ACCET's Web site. In some cases, the documents still had the continuing education and training group's name in the text.

AAHEA did not respond, according to Roger J. Williams, executive director of ACCET, until this week, when the documents were taken down. In an e-mail message, Mr. Brady wrote that the documents had not been copyrighted and that the material was not taken verbatim.

When informed that Mr. Brady had accused him of unfairly attacking AAHEA, Mr. Williams was unable to suppress his laughter. "I find their indignation surprising, to say the least," he said.

No explanation, no excuse, no logical reason can be found to even attempt to justify what has happened in the Freehold Regional School District where top school officials got degrees from a university that has been described as a "diploma mill."

Adding insult to injury, the officials were reimbursed with taxpayer money for the tuition and then given higher salaries because they obtained ad vanced degrees.

What superintendent H. James Wasser, assistant superintendent Donna Evangelista and retired assistant superintendent Frank Tanzini did was an absolute ripoff of the district. At least one member of the school board is asking them to return the money.

We're not sure that's enough of a mea culpa. If their students pulled this sort stunt, they would likely be punished harshly.

According to a story first reported by the Asbury Park Press, Wasser, Evangelista and Tanzini received degrees from Breyer State University -- a school that offers courses on line and has been described by officials in more than one state as "an apparent diploma mill." The website of the so-called distance university notes that is not accredited by an agency approved by the federal Education Department.

The Freehold district paid $8,700 in tuition for the educators and gave each of them $2,500 annual raises based on their having obtained doctoral degrees.

Since the charade was uncovered, there has been a lot of fingerpointing. The state Education Department has contended that it is up to local officials to make sure staff members have the appropriate credentials from a school accredited by the federal government. Others have said the state Education Department needs to do a better job of regulating these employees.

All those things are true, but the bigger scandal is that educators, who know better, engaged in this kind of decep tion. These are the people who are supposed to set the educational gold standard for the community. They are sup posed to be role models for children.

State Senate President Richard Codey said he'll introduce legislation to stop this insanity. Education Commissioner Lucille Davy is also planning regulations to guard against a recurrence. Both are appropriate responses.

Still, one has to ask about the integrity of the school officials who did this. Why would it be necessary for a district to tell a top educator that a degree from a diploma mill simply won't cut it? It's akin to writing in the parents' handbook, "Don't lock your child in a dark basement." Shouldn't some things be obvious?

Psst . . . Wanna buy a degree from a diploma mill and stick taxpayers with the bill?

If you're a public school educator, New Jersey won't stop you.

State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said she is powerless to prevent local school boards from handing out tax money to administrators who boost their pay by obtaining degrees with little or no academic value.

When it issued a nine-page report last week, the department entered a growing national controversy about the value of online degrees. But instead of announcing tough new standards, the department made only a few suggestions.

"I feel sorry for New Jersey. Here they had an opportunity to step up to the plate, and they opted not to," said former FBI agent Allen Ezell, who investigated diploma mill fraud for 11 years, then wrote three books on the subject. "I would have thought New Jersey would have had a little more brass than that."

Freehold Regional High School District became the epicenter of the diploma mill controversy in New Jersey when the superintendent and two top administrators obtained degrees from an online school that has been deemed an "apparent diploma mill" by Alabama officials.

After completing an investigation into the administrators' degrees, the education department's report stated there was "no sustainable evidence" that the administrators "possessed the prerequisite intent to deceive when they obtained the degrees" from Breyer State University, which has been chased out of two states and an African country.

The education department report suggested — but did not require — that high school administrators, in the future, earn college degrees from reputable, accredited schools.

None of the three administrators investigated — Superintendent H. James Wasser, Assistant Superintendent Donna Evangelista and recently retired Assistant Superintendent Frank Tanzini — was required to pay back the $10,750 they received in taxpayer money to obtain degrees from Breyer State.

The board gave raises — $2,500 each per year — for their advanced degrees.

Breyer has been booted out of Idaho, Alabama and the African nation of Liberia.

"Breyer State is a diploma mill. There's no question about it," said Alan Contreras of Oregon's Office of Degree Authorization. "It's obviously a waste of taxpayers' money."

But Education Commissioner Davy said local school boards must write contracts and pay benefits that make sense for taxpayers.

"It is wrong for people to use those diploma mill degrees to increase their salaries," she said. "But I don't have the authority to stop them."

More of the same

On the same day New Jersey issued its report, the Asbury Park Press discovered three more educators who earned what experts say are bogus degrees.

Freehold Regional employees Cheryl Lanza, an English teacher, and Lorraine Taddei-Graef, a learning disabilities teacher consultant, both obtained degrees from Breyer State. Neither could be reached for comment.

Freehold taxpayers reimbursed Lanza $2,050 for her "doctorate of philosophy in education." Taddei-Graef was not reimbursed, according to school district records.

Meanwhile, in the Asbury Park school district, Acting School Superintendent James T. Parham said he paid about $3,000 to receive a "Master of Arts" with a major in special education from Almeda University in Idaho.

Parham 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.

Parham said the Asbury Park school district did not reimburse him for the master's degree, which he received on Aug. 6, 2006.

Asked why he would pay for the degree, Parham said he thought it "might look good" on his resume, and that "it might add something."

Seven months after receiving the degree, Parham was appointed by the school board at a salary of $110,620 to take the job held by suspended Superintendent Antonio Lewis, who is under criminal investigation by the state Attorney General's Office.

Parham, who was a vice principal in the district, said his Almeda degree did not help him become acting superintendent.

A degree in surgery

Ezell, the former FBI agent, said Almeda's degrees are "a blatant fraud."

With an estimated 4 million students expected to take at least one online college course this fall, national experts like Ezell, University of Illinois professor George Gollin and Contreras say that taxpayers — and students — need to be vigilant against schools offering big credentials for only a little work.

Gollin, a national expert on bogus online degrees, once submitted his resume to a diploma mill and received a master's degree in public administration. Later, he told the school he changed his mind and said he wanted a doctorate degree in thoracic surgery. Once he sent in the money, the school agreed.

Gollin, a physics professor, has never operated on anyone.

He found it surprising that a school superintendent, who is supposed to set the highest academic standards, would purchase a questionable degree, Gollin said.

"We're trying to deal with truth in analysis when we provide education," he said. "To have a superintendent of schools going around, buying false credentials in order to fool people into thinking he has expertise . . . that's just a sign of poor integrity that is astonishing to me."

In his doctoral dissertation, Wasser stated he was mentored by Dominick L. Flarey, the former president of Breyer State.

After investigating the school, Alabama canceled its license and forced the school to leave the state.

So did Idaho. The school currently operates out of a post office box in Los Angeles.

'That's their opinion'

In an e-mail, Flarey said he was no longer president and would not discuss the institution or the degrees awarded to Freehold administrators.

"I have nothing at all to do with the administration of the school. I only teach some courses," he said. Breyer State last week did not list a president on its Web site.

Responding to criticism of Breyer by Ezell, Gollin and Contreras, Wasser said: "That's their opinion."

Wasser staunchly defended the work he did for his degree.

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

Wasser said he worked for more than a year on his doctoral dissertation and is proud of the final product.

"I am not here to defend Breyer State. If you want to do that, that's your business, or the business of the FBI, the CIA, whoever wants to do it. . . . I can only defend my education and my dissertation."

He said he could have charged taxpayers more.

"In the future, in a few years, what are people going to say about the degrees people earn online? Because online education is the wave of the future now. It's not attending class and sitting in a classroom, which I could have done.

"I could have left my job at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. . . . I could have done that. I chose not to. I could have cost the taxpayers a tremendous amount of money," Wasser said.

In Asbury Park, Parham accessed Almeda University's Web site while he was being interviewed in his office and pointed to an accrediting agency Almeda says has sanctioned its online education program.

But Gollin, who has been calling attention to diploma mills for years, said the bogus schools also often create phony accreditation agencies that try to give a veneer of acceptability to the academically indefensible.

Ezell said only degrees accredited by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation have value and are officially recognized by the federal government. The list of accreditation agencies is available at www.CHEA.org.

"A 10-year-old knows how to use Google," Ezell said. "It's nothing complex. It's all right there."

Jim Harlan is a Harvard-educated venture capitalist with a keen interest in energy policy and a half-million dollars to spend on his campaign. He decided three months ago to make his first run for public office.

Vinny Mendoza, an organic farmer and real estate investor with graduate degrees from a now-defunct diploma mill [LaSalle University], wants quickly to end the war in Iraq and has spent hardly a dime on his campaign. He's run for office four times in the past four years.

What unites them is a commitment to returning Louisiana's 1st Congressional District to Democratic hands for the first time since 1977. Both will compete in their party's primary, the winner to take on U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson...

OCALA -- Bernard LeCorn, who says he is qualified to run for School Board because he has a doctorate degree... from a diploma mill...

Meanwhile, LeCorn’s doctorate comes from the American College of Metaphysical Theology, an unaccredited diploma mill that sells doctorate degrees for $249.

The school Web site, which lists a Golden Valley, Minn. address, says you can also get a master’s degree for $209 and a bachelor’s for $149, all without taking one class. Degrees are mailed within a month of payment in many cases.

LeCorn insists his doctorate in pastoral administration is legitimate because the degree recognizes his life’s work as an educator and a pastor for First Missionary Full Baptist Church of Ocala on Southeast 35th Court, just north of Belleview.

“I still feel that my qualifications are better than my opponents,” said LeCorn, referring to the colleges that he claimed had awarded him degrees.

The metaphysical college’s Web site — www.americancollege.com — acknowledges that it is not accredited. It states that accreditation is not important in theology and metaphysics colleges.

When the Star-Banner called the number listed on the Web site, the phone number was disconnected.

The school site states that paying for a degree can boost any applicants quest for a better job: ‘’On the day that you enroll in a degree program, you may legitimately add an important line to your resume…”

To get a doctorate, the school site states that after paying $249, a student gets full credit for life experiences through living life in your own community without going to classes. The doctorate also includes “ministerial credentials at no extra charge.”

The site defines metaphysics as “the science which investigates first causes of existence and knowledge. It seeks to explain the nature of being and the origin and structure of the world, uniting man’s physical, mental, and spiritual character into its true nature of holism.”

During a check of LeCorn’s background, it was also discovered that the 54-year-old has had his driver’s license suspended twice in the last year for not paying his car insurance premium.

He said he quickly paid the fee moments after his license was revoked on June 9. It was reinstated on June 25.

LeCorn was also cited in February 2005 for speeding through the Ward Highlands Elementary School zone. A Marion County deputy pulled LeCorn over for doing 50 mph in a 20-mph zone at 8 a.m.

“I just didn’t see the flashing lights,” he said.

LeCorn has had financial trouble as well, according to a foreclosure case filed at the Marion County Courthouse. LeCorn purchased the First Missionary Full Gospel Baptist Church near Belleview and the mortgage was held by Robert Hobbs.

Hobbs filed for foreclosure in 2006 after LeCorn fell far behind on his payments, which were more than $1,400 per month. A Marion County judge ordered the church to be sold in August 2006.

Just before it was to go to auction, friends — investors — of LeCorn paid off the mortgage and the foreclosure case was closed, according to court files.

LeCorn said his church congregation started dropping and so did donations and he fell behind on the payments. “It’s only as good as the money stream,” he said.

When asked if he felt the near foreclosure had any bearing on how he would handle the School District’s $628 million budget, he said: “I think that means I know how to get things done when money is tight,” he said, referring to the School District’s funding shortage. “I know to get things done on a shoestring budget.”

Iran's new interior minister has raised an uproar among lawmakers and Iranian media over an apparently fake claim that he holds an honorary doctorate from Britain's Oxford University. To back his case, he's shown off a degree certificate riddled with spelling and grammar mistakes.

Oxford issued a statement Wednesday denying it ever awarded Ali Kordan an honorary doctorate of law, as he claimed to parliament before it approved his appointment to the post earlier this month.

The Interior Ministry put out a copy of the degree, with an Oxford seal and dated June 2000, aiming to prove its authenticity.

But in the certificate, "entitled" is misspelled "intitled," and it says Kordan was granted the degree "to be benefitted from its scientific privileges."

The clumsily worded document says Kordan "has shown a great effort in preparing educational materials and his research in the domain of comparative law,that has opened a new chapter,not only in our university,but, to our knowledge,in this country" — leaving out spaces after all but one of the commas. It was published in several Iranian papers this week.

Oxford said in its statement that it "has no record of Mr. Ali Kordan receiving an honorary doctorate or any other degree from the university." It added that the three professors whose alleged signatures are on the certificate have all held posts at the university at some stage but none of them work in the field of law and none would sign degree certificates.

Media threatened
The alleged fake has been heavily covered in several Iranian newspapers and Web sites, and parliament speaker Ali Larijani on Monday ordered the body's education committee to look into the degree's authenticity.

The Tehran prosecutors office announced Wednesday that the Alef news Web site, which has carried several reports questioning the degree, has been "banned based on complaints by legal entities," the state news agency IRNA reported. [See http://www.alef1.com/content/view/30890/.] The office said the site had no work license and did not link the ban to the interior minister issue. The site could not be accessed in Iran on Wednesday.

"The Interior Ministry does not have the right to threaten the media for questioning the authenticity of the claim," parliament member Ahmed Tavakoli was quoted as saying on Alef. He said the "truth of such an important issue must be made clear." Interior Ministry officials could not be reached Wednesday for comment on the Oxford statement.

During his confirmation debate, numerous lawmakers argued Kordan was unqualified for the ministry post, some claiming that his Oxford degree was a fake. Kordan was approved Aug. 5 by a relatively slim margin of around 160 of the 269 lawmakers present, a reflection of the concerns. The Interior Ministry runs the country's police and oversees elections.

Kordan was considered a compromise candidate between hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Larijani, who is a conservative but seen as a rival to the president. Kordan was Larijani's deputy when Larijani held a previous post as head of the state broadcasting service, and Kordan later went on to serve as deputy oil minister.

'Torn paper'
Ahmadinejad defended Kordan amid the debates, dismissing degrees in general as "torn paper" not necessary for serving the people.

An Interior Ministry statement this week insisted the degree was authentic, calling claims otherwise "destructive" and "insulting" and urging media to refrain from "lying and suspicious reports."

Tavakoli and other parliament opponents of Kordan have not called for his resignation. Hamid Rasai, a lawmaker who backs Kordan, was quoted in several Iranian papers this week saying parliament approved Kordan despite the degree dispute, but added that the minister should "remove the ambiguities" over the issue.

Janet Killen invested $5,500 and four years of her life getting what she thought was a master's degree in nursing education from a Caldwell online college. When she presented her degree in 2007 to Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore., where she teaches nursing, she was dumbfounded when administrators told her it was worthless in her state.

Moreover, Oregon state officials told her she must stop touting the diploma she received from Canyon College or she could face civil and criminal penalties for using an invalid degree. She has to notify a hospital where she works that her degree is not recognized in Oregon.

"I felt really violated," Killen said. "I have two associate degrees, a bachelor's degree and an illegal master's degree. Do you love it?"

How can something like this happen?

The Idaho State Board of Education, which oversees for-profit colleges like Canyon, hasn't had the staff to enforce state rules that require schools like Canyon to be registered with the state before handing out diplomas.

But Mike Rush, Ed Board executive director, says he will seek an injunction against Canyon College if it doesn't comply with Idaho law.

Oregon won't accept degrees from Canyon College because the school is not registered in Idaho and is not accredited by federally recognized agencies, said Alan Contreras, administrator of the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization.

Registration helps the state be aware of what programs are available in Idaho. Accreditation gives an assurance that the program meets some minimal standards for quality, state officials say.

"Degrees issued by Canyon College have the same validity as degrees issued by Les Schwab Tires or a neighborhood grocery: zero," Contreras wrote to Canyon College's legal counsel.

Idaho state officials also put distance between themselves and Canyon College.

"Their credits will not transfer into any state-supported college inside Idaho," Harv Lyter, Idaho proprietary schools coordinator, wrote to Contreras in an e-mail recently. "Idaho does not consider Canyon College credits or diplomas valid."

Michael F. Storrs, who was listed as Canyon College president when the school filed business papers with the Idaho Secretary of State's office in 1998, could not be reached for comment. John Denmark, also an owner of the school, declined to speak with the Statesman.

In a letter to Contreras, Canyon College's attorney, Brad Miller, defended the school.

Canyon "takes great pride in offering educational opportunities that would not otherwise be available to a number of individuals at an affordable price," he wrote.

A computer search found no lawsuits against Canyon College in Idaho's 4th Judicial District or any complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau.

But Idaho and the school disagree on how much oversight the state should have.

On July 2, Lyter wrote Denmark, saying the school must register with the state by July 31, according to letters the Statesman obtained in a public records request from the State Board of Education.

Miller responded by saying the school offers no degrees from locations in Idaho so it is not subject to registration.

But a law revised in Idaho in 2006 says "if you operated from or purported to operate from a location in Idaho, you are an Idaho school," Lyter said.

In recent days, on some pages of its Web site but not all of them, Canyon College changed its mailing address to a suburb outside of Sacramento, Calif. The phone and fax numbers still have Idaho area codes.

IDAHO A 'SORRY SISTER' ON COLLEGE OVERSIGHT

Canyon College, which is 10 years old, has an enrollment of about 4,000 students, college officials say. Online courses are offered in a variety of fields including theology, Chicano and Middle Eastern studies, criminology and nursing, according to the school's Web site. The school has had an office at 111 Poplar St. in Caldwell.

But despite the official concerns with the school, Idaho has done little to compel the college to meet state requirements followed by other private schools such as George Fox University, Stevens Henager College and Apollo College.

Idaho hasn't had anyone to focus on for-profit school oversight until Lyter, a former inspector general at Mountain Home Air Force base, was hired a month ago.

"We've had nobody minding the store," Rush said.

Until Idaho beefs up its regulation of proprietary schools, Contreras will classify the state as one of the "Seven Sorry Sisters, the states with the worst regulation of private colleges." The others are: Hawaii, California, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Colorado, although Alabama has recently toughened its enforcement against such schools.

CANYON IS ON A LOT OF STATES' WATCH LISTS

Oregon isn't the only state with concerns about Canyon College. Washington's office of degree authorization wrote Canyon College officials in July, reminding them that academic credentials from the school are valueless in the state and can't be used to help get employment or a license to practice a trade.

Michael Ball, Washington's degree authorization associate director, said the letter was a "shot across the bow" to Canyon College. Don't "think of coming to Washington," he said.

And the Pennsylvania Department of Education notified its school district officials that Canyon College is "not authorized to operate in Pennsylvania" after a group of teachers in a district 60 miles north of Pittsburgh sought reimbursement for attending classes through Canyon College. The classes could cost taxpayers in the West Middlesex School District between $20,000 and $40,000.

"Taxpayers are putting out taxpayer money and not getting the quality of education expected of an accredited agency," said Tom Hubert, school board president. "Idaho needs to step up to the plate. They are ... allowing them to do this. I would hope officials in Idaho could see that and help us out."

CANYON COLLEGE IS NOT UNIQUE, THOUGH

While Canyon has attracted some of the focus of Lyter's office, Lyter also had to pay attention briefly to Breyer State University, a school that made a short stop in Idaho this summer.

Breyer State University, which was in Idaho during the early part of the decade, returned here in late June, according to Idaho Secretary of State business records. The online school moved operations back after it lost its license to operate in Alabama amid a crackdown on what education officials called "diploma mills."

"One of the ... institution's many violations included conferring honorary doctorates on individuals based on life and work experience, a one-time application fee and a monetary contribution to the institution," said a press release issued by Alabama's Department of Post Secondary Education.

On July 2, Lyter told Breyer officials they must register with the State Board under Idaho law.

Late last month, Breyer State changed its address and phone number on its Web site from Boise to Los Angeles.

John Moran, Breyer State's marketing director and dean of students, declined to comment.

The school is appealing the loss of its license in Alabama.

STILL LOOKING FOR A DEGREE

Back in Oregon, Killen, the nursing instructor whose degree was rejected, maintains she got a good education at Canyon College. Killen took about a dozen classes, and she said many seemed in line with those she would have gotten elsewhere but would have cost as much as $600 per credit hour.

Canyon charges $500 per master's course and $435 per bachelor's course, according to the school's Web site.

But Killen is also upset that Canyon College administrators never explained that her degree would not be recognized in Oregon when she started taking classes, she said.

"They should have informed me," Killen said. "I knew nothing."

Contreras, the Oregon degree authorization administrator, wrote Canyon College officials demanding a refund for Killen and reminding school officials that they had agreed in 2000 to notify any Oregon resident that Canyon degrees are not valid in that state.

"We are disappointed that Canyon College continues to take money from Oregon residents," Contreras wrote on July 3. "(T)his kind of crude plunder really needs to stop."

On Friday, Canyon College officials agreed to a refund, but did not mention Killen by name in the letter or the amount it would give back.

Miller wrote that the school agreed to the refund in part because Killen was threatened "with criminal prosecution if she listed having a degree from Canyon College on her resume." Canyon officials also offered to quit accepting Oregon residents if the state would drop whatever issues it has with the college.

Contreras declined.

"The laws of Washington, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Illinois, Texas, Maine, New Jersey and Virginia disallow the use of degrees from Canyon College," Contreras wrote. "For Canyon simply to cease offering its products to Oregon residents would serve little purpose unless it also agreed to cease offering them to residents of the other states."

As for Killen, she's back on the Internet, looking for another place to get a master's.

"I want a degree," she said.

Brain surgery, anyone?

Just slip on a hospital gown and step into my operating cubicle here at the Tribune.

Let me clear my desk of printouts, unwashed coffee cups and old newspapers so you can stretch out. Comfy? Now, I'll need a tool sharp enough to crack open your skull. Scissors might work, if I hammer on them with my shoe.

There, there. Trust me. I'm a doctor—or I will be as soon as I fork over my medical school tuition.

Recently, I received approval for a series of bogus academic credentials, including a "Doctorate Degree in Medicine & Surgery" from a diploma mill called Ashwood University. All I have to do is persuade my editors to pay $699 "tuition," including a $75 surcharge guaranteeing me a 4.0 grade-point average.

Suddenly, degree mills are a hot topic. Some 9,600 people nationwide—among them Berwyn police officers and a Chicago Public Schools instructor—are suspected of buying junk degrees from St. Regis University, a criminal enterprise in Washington state in which eight employees have pleaded guilty to fraud.

So I decided to test how difficult it was to accumulate credentials based on what the diploma mills call "life experience." Turns out just about any life experience beyond taking aspirin regularly can qualify you for an advanced degree in medicine.

I applied by typing in the names of a number of hospitals I had visited over the years, whether it was to have tonsils removed, visit a sick friend or interview someone. I didn't claim employment at any of them. I didn't even note the dates. The list looked like this:

* Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, Long Beach, Calif.
* St. John Medical Center, Longview, Wash.
* Hôpital Albert Schweitzer, Deschapelles, Haiti.
* Thousand Bed Hospital, Vladivostok, Russia.
* Etc.

Fifteen hours later, Ashwood University e-mailed the good news that I could lay the foundation for a new career if I'm ever laid off. The note read:

"Congratulations, Russell Working!

"We are pleased to announce that on the basis of your resume submitted by the Assistant Registrar, the 10-member evaluation committee at Ashwood University has finally approved you for Doctorate Degree."

The bogus degrees in medicine aren't funny, though. Consider the case of John Curran, a phony medical doctor in Rhode Island who charged most patients a standard fee of $10,000, according to a newspaper in Kentucky, where the diploma mill was located.

Among Curran's patients was Taylor Alves, an 18-year-old photographer and model who was dying of ovarian cancer. Curran said he could heal her with a concoction of powdered vegetables in water. So she spent her final weeks refusing other food and died in great anguish, her mother told the Lexington Herald-Leader.

In 2006, Curran was sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison for wire fraud and money laundering.

Diploma mill operators—and buyers—can run afoul of the law in several ways. The federal government has nailed people on charges that include mail and wire fraud. In Illinois it is illegal to produce a false academic degree for profit unless it is marked "for novelty purposes only," said Natalie Bauer, spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office. Both the state and federal governments forbid using bogus degrees to gain employment or advance on the job.

George Gollin, a professor and diploma-mill fraud-buster from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has been leading the way in exposing how easy it is to get a fake degree.

Several years ago, he discovered that St. Regis University, based near Spokane, Wash., was offering high school degrees for those who filled out an online form with 100 questions, starting out with, "Where does the president of the United States live?" On a form with four possible answers to each question, Gollin intentionally clicked most of them wrong.

St. Regis was so impressed with his answers, it said he was eligible for both high school and associate's degrees.

"If I were to give the test form to a bunch of pigeons and let them pick answers by randomly pecking," Gollin said, "I would have been outscored by slightly more than 75 percent of the pigeons who took the test."

In my case, I decided to expand my employment options by applying for a PhD in child and family studies from Rochville University. As a doctoral thesis, I submitted the Unabomber manifesto, written by domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski.

Under the title "Consequences of the Industrial Revolution: A Jungian Approach," I submitted a 34,000-word rant by a madman imprisoned for mailing bombs that killed three people and wounded 22. Not to worry. A few hours later, Kaczynski's wisdom had qualified me to hang out in playgrounds and scribble notes on the behavior of other people's children.

For my doctorate in theology and Biblical counseling from the bogus Belford University, I submitted the Hamas charter as my thesis. The work blames "Zionists" for corrupting education and culture worldwide though secret guises as "Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, gangs of spies and the like."

The universities replied positively in remarkably similar e-mails, which made me think they might be different faces of the same diploma scheme.

Then I began getting calls on my cell phone from diploma mill representatives demanding the money. The "universities" kept e-mailing to say I had only seven days to pay. When the deadline passed, they all granted me another seven. I never paid anything to any of them.

Recently, I asked Rochville to change my PhD to architecture and urban planning, and it agreed without asking for additional life experience or documentation. So I sent another e-mail asking to change it to a PhD in theater arts.

"I started thinking I'd like to direct musicals, such as 'Mame,' 'The Fields of Ambrosia,' 'Criminally Insane Puppets' (better than it sounds!), etc.," I wrote, adding, "P.S. It's very important that you spell it this way: Theatre. I'm thinking of moving to London."

They agreed once again.

So I called up Rochville and spoke to a "student counselor" who spoke with a foreign accent, identifying himself as Jason Anderson. When I asked, he said he was in Maryland.

I told him I had used the Unabomber manifesto. Why would the 10-member faculty committee accredit that Kaczynski diatribe?

Not so fast, Anderson said.

"After that e-mail is sent to you, there's a whole process that goes after that," he said. "You get yourself registered, and then actually we go deeper into what you've done, and find out what major you qualify for."

Whew! Glad we cleared that up. I'm sure they all operate that way.

So let's see how confident they are in their own degrees. Would the members of Ashwood University's evaluation committee please line up at my cubicle for their prostate exams?

One of the new principals in the North Hills School District boasts a doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh -- no small accomplishment for a 27-year-old with several years of full-time teaching experience.

But after recent events, Dr. Joseph W. Pasquerilla might be reluctant to tout his status as a faculty member with another institution: Canyon College, an online entity that is widely viewed as disreputable.

Courses taught by Dr. Pasquerilla to fellow teachers at his old workplace, the West Middlesex Area School District in Mercer County, have led to problems there and prompted a meeting with his new boss to discuss the Canyon College situation.

The Idaho-based institution is not recognized by Idaho, Pennsylvania, the U.S. Department of Education or any respected accreditation agency.

"They are quite a well-known diploma mill," said Alan Contreras, an expert on the subject and director of Oregon's Office of Degree Authorization.

Degrees from Canyon College are essentially worthless in Pennsylvania. A state Department of Education official said the institution is not authorized to operate in Pennsylvania, and its programs and courses are not approved.

"We discussed with him very clearly that at North Hills, if one of our staff members were to partake in any of the offerings at Canyon, it would not be recognized at North Hills," said district spokeswoman Tina Vojtko. "We don't see the affiliation being necessarily relevant here at North Hills."

Officials at Canyon College could not be reached for comment.

Dr. Pasquerilla, who earned his master's degree at Youngstown State University, said he joined Canyon College with noble intentions -- to help teachers at his old district obtain master's degrees at an affordable price and with a curriculum he could assemble.

Under the West Middlesex contract, teachers with master's degrees can earn an extra $2,400 per year.

Dr. Pasquerilla acknowledged he should have sought more information before accepting a contract to teach courses for a fee of $250 per student. He said he did not know a master's degree from the school would not be valid in the state, he did not realize Canyon was not authorized to operate in its home state, and he did not realize the entity was not properly accredited.

"I guess I should have asked more questions," Dr. Pasquerilla, principal of Northway Elementary School, said recently. "Maybe there was some misinformation brought to us by them."

Dr. Pasquerilla's situation is a cautionary tale illustrating the difficulty -- even for people with a doctorate -- in sorting out reputable schools from diploma mills, accredited institutions from those that offer bogus degrees.

"If someone is taking course work to get a degree, they need to do their homework to ensure it is an accredited, legitimate degree-granting institution. Otherwise, they may end up spending money and doing work for what ultimately could be a meaningless degree," Pennsylvania education department spokesman Michael Race said.

Despite the drama in West Middlesex, Dr. Pasquerilla enjoys the support of the North Hills board president.

"I don't know anything about Canyon College and quite honestly I don't really care. What I'm looking for is somebody who can shoot the lights out for the North Hills School District," Jeffrey A. Meyer said.

"We hired a guy to do a job as an administrator. Based on the feedback that we've received from the people who know him best in his previous district, we've received rave reviews."

But Dr. Pasquerilla still needs to sort out for himself whether he will continue to teach for Canyon, something he is not ready to abandon, despite the questions that have arisen.

"Based upon what I know now, I would need to reconnect and re-evaluate the situation with Canyon College," Dr. Pasquerilla said. "I have a commitment to the staff at West Middlesex.''

As for that district, where Dr. Pasquerilla passed out fliers advertising his courses, it has its own problems.

At least 11 teachers studied under Dr. Pasquerilla and his former colleague, math teacher Mark Hogue.

Five of them have successfully sought tuition reimbursement as provided under their contract. The district has paid them $12,000 in taxpayer money, covering the bulk of what they paid Canyon College.

But since concerns have cropped up, the district has put a stop on payments to six other teachers until its solicitor can study the matter.

Dr. Pasquerilla said he found Canyon College on the Internet and was attracted to its promise of allowing him to craft his own curriculum and offer it to peers at a reasonable price.

"We just were trying to do something that was good for the district," Dr. Pasquerilla said. "I had all the right intentions in mind, and that is to help educators become better educators"

His plan blew up when school board members began questioning the reimbursements and asking pointed questions about Canyon College.

"It just didn't seem right," West Middlesex board President Thomas J. Hubert said.

Mr. Hubert's hunch was borne out, and not only in Pennsylvania.

"There's no legal basis for the claim this is a legitimate degree," Oregon's Mr. Contreras said of Canyon College. "The entity itself has no legal authority to issue degrees. It would be like saying I did a bunch of course work for Wal-Mart and they gave me a degree."

Mr. Contreras claims that Canyon has twice violated an agreement to warn Oregon residents interested in its programs that they cannot legally use a Canyon degree in the state.

Idaho is trying to get Canyon to register with the state, but those efforts have so far failed.

"We do not recognize them. We do not recognize the degrees or certificates they may grant, and essentially it's 'buyer beware,' " said Mark Browning, spokesman for the Idaho State Board of Education.

Idaho law states a school must be accredited by an agency recognized by the state or federal government.

Canyon College states on its Web site that it is accredited by The American Naturopathic Medical Accreditation Board and The Association for Innovation in Distance Education.

The naturopathic group's credentials are questioned by Karen Howard, executive director of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians.

"There's no indication this is a legitimate accrediting organization," Ms. Howard said.

As for the other agency, Jan Riggs, a spokeswoman for the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, said neither her group nor the U.S. Department of Education recognizes it.

At West Middlesex, Superintendent Alan J. Baldarelli said he does not plan to approve future requests for tuition reimbursement at Canyon College, something that seems to be in sync with the wishes of his board president, Mr. Hubert.

"The taxpayers deserve a little bit more for their money," Mr. Hubert said.

Steven Karl Randock Sr., described by a prosecutor as the chief financial operator of a Spokane-based diploma mill, was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison after his defense attorney made an impassioned plea for home detention.

Randock got the same sentence given to his wife, Dixie Ellen Randock, on July 2 after they both pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud.

For six years, the Randocks and a team of associates sold high school and college degrees from 121 fictitious online schools they created and counterfeit diplomas and transcripts from 66 legitimate universities.

From nondescript offices in Mead and later in Post Falls, they sold more than 10,000 of the degrees and related academic products to 9,612 buyers in 131 countries ¡V pulling in $7,369,907.

If they hadn't struck plea bargains and been convicted by a jury, they each faced 87 to 105 months in federal prison on the conspiracy charge alone. Companion money laundering charges were dismissed when the Randocks made their plea bargains.

Dixie Randock is appealing her three-year sentence.

Her husband's attorney, Peter Schweda, said Steven Randock has suffered heart attacks, strokes and most recently "cluster headaches" and should be allowed to serve his sentence by being restricted to the couple's home in Colbert.

Assistant U.S. Attorney George J.C. Jacobs argued that Randock, 69, will get adequate medical care in a federal prison. He was allowed to remain free and ordered to self-report to a prison once the facility is identified by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

"It is clear to me that his culpability is certainly in the same category" of his wife, U.S. District Court Judge Lonnie Suko said in sentencing Randock.

The judge said that under court rulings and federal sentencing guidelines, a defendant's age and medical issues are not relevant in determining where a sentence is served unless the defense establishes that an "extraordinary physical condition" exists. Randock and his at torney failed to prove that, said the judge, who was limited to the 36-month term unless he rejected the written plea agreements that called for that sentence.

"There's no constitutional right ¡K to a particular kind of medical care" for federal felons, the judge said.

Schweda said his client had open-heart surgery in April after earlier heart attacks and strokes, and takes 11 prescription medications.

If sent to prison, Schweda said, Randock is "afraid he will end up dead or paralyzed. He's afraid he will die in prison."

In federal prison Randock may not be allowed to take the types of medicines prescribed by his doctors, Schweda said.

He also would be subjected to a "rigid routine, won't have the right pillow, won't be able to eat when he wants and will be in an environment where he could be victimized by younger inmates," Schweda said.

But the prosecutor said it was the seriousness of the crime, not Randock's health, that should dictate where he serves his prison term.

The Randocks were not only selling bogus and counterfeit degrees, the prosecutor told the court, they also were operating fraudulent accreditation and evaluations companies that Steven Randock helped set up.

"This was a very, very serious crime," Jacobs told the court. "It presented a significant risk of danger to the public."

If the U.S. Secret Service and other law enforcement agencies hadn't begun Operation Gold Seal in early 2005 and obtained grand jury indictments against the Randocks and six others, the number of fraudulent degrees sold by the operation would now be double or triple the 10,000, Jacobs said.

The prosecutor said the federal prison system will do a thorough examination of Randock, as it does with the 180,000 other federal prisoners, and provide the appropriate level of medical care.

His attorney told the court that Randock wasn't a leader or organizer and was only doing what his wife told him to do as part of the conspiracy.

Randock didn't stand to address the court, as is routine, but read a prepared statement, telling the court he wanted to apologize to "my family and friends." He didn't mention the public or customers who bought degrees from the diploma mill.

Randock said he wanted to serve his prison term in home confinement, living with his mother-in-law if his wife eventually goes to prison.

"I don't think I could take the rigorous routines of prison," Randock told the judge. "I'm sorry this has ever happened, and I'll never be in trouble again."

If a bill’s impact or importance were measured by its length or the amount of time Congress spent working on it, the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HR 4137) would be one for the ages. At more than 1,150 pages, the bill is about 20 times longer than the Higher Education Act of 1965 that it modifies, creating 64 new programs and touching on issues as diverse as the availability of Pell Grants and illegal downloading of digital music and video. And the legislation, which finally passed both the House and the Senate by overwhelmingly margins on Thursday, has been in discussion on Capitol Hill, in one form or another, for most of this decade. It is five years overdue...

The bill became law when it was signed by President Bush on August 14, 2008.

Material related to diploma mills can be found on pages 10 and 17 and is quoted here:

Title I--General Provisions; Sec. 103. Additional Definitions; (a) Additional Definitions:

"...(20) DIPLOMA MILL.—The term 'diploma mill' means an
entity that—

  "(A)(i) offers, for a fee, degrees, diplomas, or certificates,
  that may be used to represent to the general public
  that the individual possessing such a degree, diploma, or
  certificate has completed a program of postsecondary education
  or training; and

    "(ii) requires such individual to complete little or no
    education or coursework to obtain such degree, diploma,
    or certificate; and

  "(B) lacks accreditation by an accrediting agency or
  association that is recognized as an accrediting agency
  or association of institutions of higher education (as such
  term is defined in section 102) by—

    "(i) the Secretary pursuant to subpart 2 of part
    H of title IV; or

    "(ii) a Federal agency, State government, or other
    organization or association that recognizes accrediting
    agencies or associations.

...

Title I--General Provisions; Sec. 109. Diploma Mills:

Part B of title I (20 U.S.C. 1011 et seq.) is further amended
by adding at the end the following:

"SEC. 123. DIPLOMA MILLS.

  "(a) INFORMATION TO THE PUBLIC.—The Secretary shall maintain
  information and resources on the Department’s website to
  assist students, families, and employers in understanding what
  a diploma mill is and how to identify and avoid diploma mills.

  "(b) COLLABORATION.—The Secretary shall continue to collaborate
  with the United States Postal Service, the Federal Trade
  Commission, the Department of Justice (including the Federal
  Bureau of Investigation), the Internal Revenue Service, and the
  Office of Personnel Management to maximize Federal efforts to—

    "(1) prevent, identify, and prosecute diploma mills; and

    "(2) broadly disseminate to the public information about
    diploma mills, and resources to identify diploma mills.".