Toth: Georgia to change rules on foreign degrees

<p>Georgia will change its policy on accepting degrees from foreign universities after it was revealed that at least 11 Georgia teachers bought diplomas from a Liberian online college, now believed to be a diploma mill, a state official said.</p><p>F.D. Toth, executive secretary for the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, said Tuesday that the state would require teachers to use predesignated "foreign credential review agencies" that would determine if college credit from offshore schools is equivalent to U.S. course work.</p><p>Until about two weeks ago, the commission allowed teachers to select from any agency under the umbrella of four state-recognized credential evaluation services. But that method caused the state to overlook and accept at least 11 degrees from Saint Regis, a Liberia-based school that grants degrees for "life experience" with little or no course work, Toth said. Now, the state will get more careful about where it accepts foreign transcripts from and hopes to weed out degrees from lax overseas universities, he said.</p><p>"We're going to set the criteria and say 'Here's what we expect,'" Toth said. "We'll pick two or three and not worry about all of the others."</p><p>A decision will not be made until next week, Toth said.</p><p>Earlier this month, the commission discovered a number of Georgia teachers were earning additional pay because of master's or doctorate degrees earned from Saint Regis. Six of them were Gwinnett County Public Schools teachers.</p><p>The state began looking into Saint Regis last fall after a Gordon County teacher was turned in by his superintendent for the suspicious diploma.</p><p>Following an investigation, the Professional Standards Commission decided it would no longer accept credits from the university, and revoked salary increases granted by the credentials.</p><p>As for the six Gwinnett County teachers who earned almost $30,000 in pay because of the degrees, District Attorney Danny Porter said Tuesday he plans to appoint an investigator to the case.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x2866694)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/3/172629