Diplomagate

It seems I did miss the 12 district's legislators official statement on Diplomagate:

July 24, 2008

BECK, O ’SCANLON, CASAGRANDE TO JOIN LEGISLATION REGARDING ADVANCED DEGREES

12TH District Legislators Senator Jennifer Beck, Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon and Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande announced today that they would merge legislation they had been drafting prohibiting school employees from receiving raises based on degrees from non-accredited schools, or the schools paying for courses from such institutions, with legislation being drafted by Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini and Assemblyman David Rible.

“We were glad to see that Assemblywoman Angelini and Assemblyman Rible share our, and the public’s outrage over the practice of schools paying for, and granting raises based on, diplomas from unaccredited institutions”, said O’Scanlon and Casagrande in a joint statement . “Our bills were very similar, so instead of drafting legislation separately, we agreed we’d all sponsor the bill”.

Beck said the legislators had no problem with teachers and administrators who got their degrees from reputable, accredited distance learning institutions.

“This is not an attack on distance learning institutions. Indeed, there are many reputable places to earn an online degree, such as Thomas Edison State College here in New Jersey or the University of Phoenix. For many teachers and administrators with families and busy lives, distance learning can be a great alternative to a traditional bricks and mortar education which has more rigid time requirements. What we’re objecting to is people who want to take a shortcut and go to a so-called “diploma mill” to get a raise without actually doing any significant advanced learning. The schools shouldn’t be paying for that and employees shouldn’t get raises for that.”

More to come on this issue in the next few days.