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APP.com
FROM THE JERSEY SHORE TO YOU
Probe of raises
sought
Rules to end
increases for worthless degrees
By ALAN GUENTHER.
Staff Writer from the Web, August 20, 2008
State Senate President Richard J.
Codey wants the state Attorney General to investigate New Jersey public school
educators who receive taxpayer-funded raises after getting bogus online degrees.
In another development, state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy did an
about-face and said her department now will draft rules to stop superintendents
from being paid extra for worthless diplomas — and sticking taxpayers with the
cost of tuition.
She had said as late as Friday that she lacked the authority to stop boards of
education from handing out raises for diploma-mill degrees. But she
apparently changed her mind after she received a letter on Tuesday from Codey,
D-Essex, who demanded action.
"It's completely and utterly ridiculous that people at the top of our
educational system are being paid, rewarded in fact, for a degree that for all
intents and purposes comes from a fake university," Codey wrote to Davy.
Codey cited a story published Sunday by the Asbury Park Sunday Press in which
Freehold Superintendent H. James Wasser said he did not understand why his
$2,900 Ed.D. from Breyer State University was a source of controversy.
Breyer State has been thrown out of the African nation of Liberia as well as
Idaho and Alabama, where education officials called it "an apparent diploma
mill."
Wasser told the Press, "The only thing I would probably do differently, is now
that I am aware of this word "accreditation,' I would probably thoroughly
research that.' "
"Herein lies the perfect example," Codey said in a prepared statement, "of why
our administrators should receive degrees from accredited universities — to save
us the embarrassment of having educational leaders who are unaware of such
qualifications to begin with. At the very least, this is stupidity.
At the worst, it may be criminal."
Wasser declined to comment on Codey's statement or letters.
The mayor of one of the eight Freehold Regional District towns said
administrators who received bonuses for questionable degrees should pay the
money back.
"On behalf of my constituents, I am concerned that these degrees (from Breyer
State University) were obtained inappropriately," Howell Mayor Joseph DiBella
said. "They should return the tuition and have their salary advances
overturned."
Unaccredited schools
Meanwhile, the Press has uncovered two more public school employees with online
degrees from unaccredited schools.
In Weehawken, Joseph T. Little, the school district's director of curriculum and
instruction, has received raises totaling $5,500 since 2002 after paying $1,281
for a Ph.D. from St. Regis University. The school was closed after federal
agents raided the Washington state-based online diploma mill in 2005.
Also, Harold Persaud, a public school counselor in Paterson, paid $1,236 for a
St. Regis Ph.D. He said Tuesday that "I have never used the degree for
nothing."
At the Weehawken School District, Superintendent Kevin McLellan said he did not
know if Little would continue to be paid an extra $1,000 each year in a salary
boost for his St. Regis degree.
"Ninety-five percent of his course work for his Ph.D. was completed at Rutgers,"
McLellan said.
Rutgers University is accredited by federally recognized agencies.
St. Regis is not.
When asked why Weehawken didn't wait to pay Little until he earned a degree from
an accredited school, McLellan said, "I don't know ... This story just broke
right now. I think everyone has their day in court."
Little, paid a salary of $124,484 in 2007, could not be reached for comment.
After receiving the letter from Codey, Kathryn Forsyth, spokeswoman for
Education Commissioner Davy, said the education department will draft new rules
that will prevent school superintendents from asking taxpayers to pay for bogus
online degrees.
But she said legislation would be needed to crack down on lower-level
administrators.
Codey said he would introduce the necessary legislation in the fall.
Meanwhile, in Paterson, Persaud — a licensed social worker — said he destroyed
his degree when he found out that St. Regis was not an accredited university.
He said he no longer worked for the Paterson school district. However, on
Tuesday, Persaud was listed as a substance abuse counselor at the Great Falls
Academy in the Paterson public schools, according to its Web site.
Records show he was paid $58,065 by the Paterson schools in 2007. Before
ending an interview, Persaud said he was now selling real estate in Queens.
He did not respond to e-mails asking why Paterson schools still listed him as an
employee.
Great Falls Principal Zatiti Moody could not be reached for comment.
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