Education unveils database of accredited schools

The Education Department released an online list of accredited colleges and universities Tuesday, as part of the fight against diploma mills and federal employees who present fraudulent credentials.

The Web site that houses the list was unveiled during a press conference on Capitol Hill, where a string of lawmakers and federal officials said that some federal workers have used fake degrees to get promotions or higher pay. Diploma mills are schools that sell degrees, but do not have a genuine academic curriculum. The Education Department list is designed to be used by personnel officials to research schools on applications and résumés.

House Government Reform Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., called on the Office of Personnel Management and other federal agencies to use the list for hiring and screening purposes. Davis and Senate Government Affairs Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, held hearings last year to address the diploma mill issue. During those hearings, the Government Accountability Office reported that hundreds of federal employees-including some with security clearances-have received degrees from diploma mills. The GAO investigation revealed that federal funding has been used to pay for at least 70 employees to enroll in diploma mills. Federal regulations require federal employees to attend accredited institutions to receive reimbursement from the government.

"Utilize this resource so we can get the best qualified federal employees in the right places," Davis said.

Lawmakers were hesitant, however, to endorse action against current federal employees. The GAO report identified several federal workers, including three National Nuclear Security Administration managers, with top-level security clearances who received fraudulent degrees from diploma mills. The NNSA did not discipline the managers because their jobs were reportedly not contingent on the education they were claiming. Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., said he found it hard to believe that an employee could avoid discipline simply because they did not use their fraudulent degree to obtain their job. He stopped short, however, of calling for legislation or legal action against such employees.

Stephen Benowitz, OPM's associate director for human resources products and services, said agencies and employees previously had a "shared culpability" for the use of diploma mill degrees. Now that the Education Department has published the list of accredited schools, agencies should no longer be susceptible to fraudulent degrees, he said. In their remarks, Castle and Benowitz both chose to focus on preventing hiring future employees with diploma mill degrees.

"We can tell the agencies that we expect them to get this straight in the future," Castle said.

Education officials urged personnel officials to use the Web site as a first line of defense against diploma mills, but not an infallible resource. Assistant Secretary for Postsecondary Education Sally Stroup said there are a few legitimate schools that chose not to seek accreditation or federal funding.

But she noted that "98 percent of the schools that you are looking for are going to be on this list."