Top Officials Hold Fake Degrees
CBS News
Monday 10 May 2004
They are safety engineers at nuclear power plants and biological weapons
experts. They work at NATO headquarters, at the Pentagon and at nearly every
other federal agency. And, as CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports,
they're employees with degrees from phony schools.
"These degrees aren't worth the paper that they're printed on," says one
insider, who asked CBS News to protect his identity.
The man worked at a so-called diploma mill where students pay a lot of
money to get a degree online or through the mail for little or no work.
He says he's not surprised to know that there are people working at almost
every level of government who have degrees from these types of operations.
Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles Abell has a master's from Columbus
University, a diploma mill Louisiana shut down. Deputy Assistant Secretary
Patricia Walker lists among her degrees, a bachelor's from Pacific Western,
a diploma mill banned in Oregon and under investigation in Hawaii.
CBS News requested interviews with both officials. The Pentagon turned us
down, saying, "We don't consider it an issue."
But using such a degree is a crime in some states. Alan Contreras cracks
down on diploma mills for Oregon, a state that's taken the lead on this
issue.
"You don't want somebody with a fake degree working in Homeland Security,"
says Contreras. "You don't want somebody with a fake degree teaching your
children or designing your bridges."
But we found employees with diploma mill degrees at the new Transportation
Security Administration, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Departments
of Treasury and Education, where Rene Drouin sits on an advisory committee.
He has degrees from two diploma mills including Kensington University.
Kensington was forced out of business by officials in California and
Hawaii. Another Kensington alum, Florida State Rep. Jennifer Carroll, just
stepped down from the National Commission on Presidential Scholars.
Both Carroll and Drouin say they worked hard and thought their degrees
were legitimate.
"The students are being sold a bill of goods that really don't help them
at all," the insider says. "There are slick people out there, and it's
happening every day, every minute probably somewhere in America."
And taxpayers have paid for bogus degrees some workers used for hiring,
promotions and raises.
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