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Posts published in “Day: August 10, 2008”

The “Seven Sorry Sisters”

We know of diploma mills, those places that churn out piece of paper that look a lot like academic degrees but, like counterfeit money, are useful only if you don't get caught while using them. As the price of higher education roars higher, the demand for lower-cost higher ed increases, and so have the number of "colleges" that aren't accredited, whose credits won't transfer and whose degrees aren't generally considered academically valid.

The Idaho Statesman today has a piece focusing on one such, the Canyon College based in Carmichael, California, but offering online courses to places including Idaho. After describing the case of a woman who spent four years and $5,500 obtaining what she thought was a master's degree in nursing, only to find out no one else seemed to accept it that way, the story hits the core point: "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."

Washington and Oregon are relatively strict on this. But the story quotes Alan Contreras, who runs the Oregon Office of Degree Authorization, as citing Idaho as being one of "Seven Sorry Sisters, the states with the worst regulation of private colleges" - alongside Hawaii, California, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Colorado.

Idaho does have some classy local private colleges (the College of Idaho and Brigham Young University-Idaho come to mind among others), and long has had. But the marketplace is bringing in some more questionable players too. Maybe the story today will generate some renewed review. And that $5,500 won't have been spent entirely in vain.