September 23, 2008

Education chief on hot seat over bogus degrees

By TOM BALDWIN
GANNETT STATE BUREAU

State Education Commissioner Lucille Davy endured a grilling Monday from the chairman of the Assembly Education Committee, who questioned how school administrators were permitted to adorn their credentials with academic degrees from fly-by-night institutions.

During Monday's hearing, Davy said that she believed the schools chiefs collected the questionable degrees because their contracts assured them higher degrees meant higher salaries.

"To use it to gain an increase in pay," Davy said when asked why the school bosses needed to overstate their academics.

"It offends me at so many levels that this would even be a part of the discussion. . . . People are offended by who is doing it. They (taxpayers) deserve better," said Assemblyman Joseph Cryan, D-Union, chairman of the education committee.

Davy said she agreed: "These are basically back-door shortcuts. We don't want anybody who writes a three-page paper to get a master's degree. I ask, do we give them any financial renumeration for these bogus degrees?"

The controversy arose as a result of several Asbury Park Press stories that chronicled how H. James Wasser, the superintendent of the Freehold Regional High School District, and a current and former administrator in the district had obtained doctorates from an apparent diploma mill.

The three had obtained their degrees from Breyer State University, and had received raises and tuition reimbursements as a result. However, following an uproar led by lawmakers, the state has since determined that Breyer State did "not meet the statutory definition of a duly authorized institution." As a result, the three were ordered to stop using the title of "doctor"; both Wasser and Assistant Superintendent Donna Evangelista agreed that they would no longer receive their $2,500 raise as a result.

Davy insisted the superintendents, deputies and business administrators could not have used such a degree to land their actual jobs, insisting their universities and colleges needed accreditation for that, which demanded much tougher vetting.

Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, R-Monmouth, described the practice as "fraud."

The committee is also analyzing schools' use so-called "special review assessments," a path to graduation in which a school can offer alternatives to state standardized tests to allow a students to qualify for a high-school degree.

Cryan had the sides discuss the assessments as a group at his hearing, gathering data for proposed legislation on the alternative to testing. Some say they are abused by lazy school districts while others says they are a valuable option for the rare students who might not perform in a test situation.