Senator Jennifer Beck (R-12), Assemblywoman Mary Pat Angelini (R-11), and Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon and Assemblywoman Caroline Casagrande (R-12) announced Monday that they will sponsor legislation which will prevent school superintendents, assistant superintendents and business administrators from being reimbursed for tuition from unaccredited institutions and forbid pay raises based on degrees from such institutions.

“I am pleased to work together to eradicate the practice of awarding raises and tuition reimbursement to officials who have obtained their degrees from diploma mills”, said Angelini. “We want our academic leadership to exemplify the pursuit of excellence, not set an example of how to cut corners.”

Angelini, Casagrande and O’Scanlon will sponsor the Assembly version; Beck will sponsor the Senate version.

The legislation was inspired by the revelation that Freehold Regional High School District superintendent James Wasser and two assistant superintendents in the district had attended Breyer State University , an institution unaccredited by an accrediting agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education. An investigation by the New Jersey Department of Education ruled that there was no law preventing the district from paying the administrators tuition and salary increases, since their contracts did not forbid it. The Council on Higher Education, in a separate investigation issued a cease and desist letter on August 21 st demanding that Wasser refrain from using the title “Dr.” or the letters EdD after his name.

O’Scanlon said closing the loophole was the inspiration for the legislation. “As the law stands now, you’re not allowed to use the title “Doctor” before your name if you get a degree from an unaccredited institution, but you can get a raise based on it. That makes absolutely zero sense, so we’re sponsoring this legislation to bring the two laws into line with each other.”

Casagrande called the legislation a good first step and added that the legislators would look to work with legislative leaders to broaden the ban to all public employees.

Casagrande added, “This is not an attack on distance learning institutions. Indeed, there are many reputable places to earn an online degree, such as Thomas Edison State College here in New Jersey or the University of Phoenix . For many teachers and administrators with families and busy lives, distance learning can be a great alternative to a traditional bricks and mortar education which has more rigid time requirements. What we’re objecting to is people who want to take a shortcut and go to a so-called “diploma mill” to get a raise without actually doing any significant advanced learning. The schools shouldn’t be paying for that and employees shouldn’t get raises for that.”