Shut Down the Diploma Mills

California has an unfortunate reputation as a haven for diploma mills, which are schools that award degrees for little or no work. They cheapen the value of legitimate degrees, prey on the gullible and defraud employers who fall for the phony credentials. Legislation in Sacramento that would help curb these diploma mills deserves support.

State Sen. Becky Morgan (R-Los Altos Hills) is sponsoring SB 190, which would overhaul the licensing procedures for unaccredited universities and independent trade schools. One of these schools, for example, offers advanced degrees in the martial arts through correspondence courses and grants as many as 60 credits for past “life experiences.” Another offers degrees in business administration, computer science, engineering, health services, public administration and psychology, yet has only one full-time faculty member. For their independent course work, says Morgan, students pay $3,600 a year in tuition.

A 1986 directory published in Sacramento lists 177 unaccredited degree-granting programs in California, issuing among them about 1,200 doctorates each year, compared with 2,000 from accredited private institutions such as Stanford University.

Morgan’s bill, which may come up today on the Senate floor, doesn’t affect schools like Stanford that have their programs evaluated by the Western Assn. of Schools and Colleges. It would affect the nonaccredited universities that are now overseen by a division of the state Department of Education or the trade schools supervised by the Department of Consumer Affairs, neither of which has expertise in higher education. The bill would create a California Council for Private Postsecondary Education expressly to check such schools. It would be financed by increasing license fees for the schools.

Unaccredited trade schools enroll about one-third of the people who have defaulted on their student loans since 1979. Their courses fail to equip students for the job market and leave them with debts they cannot pay; at a minimum, closer supervision might help reduce loan defaults. Many unaccredited schools make their principal income from students in foreign countries, who cannot be expected to know much about American accrediting systems and degrees.

Finally, some diploma mills grant degrees in pharmacology or counseling but require little legitimate course work. SB 190 would help protect the health of employers and consumers who may be unaware that some diplomas come with little to go with them except a frame.

Morgan’s bill deserves passage.