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Federal personnel officials are intensifying efforts to educate human resources officers on the problem of fake educational degrees in government.

The Office of Personnel Management announced Monday that it will hold two seminars next month to train personnel officers on how to spot false degrees.

"These phony degrees deceive the public, pose a potential threat to national security, and can give the public the impression that federal employees have expertise and credentials when they do not," OPM Director Kay Coles James said in a memorandum this week.

The May 5 and May 7 OPM seminars in Washington will be used to train human resources officers and OPM officials who review employment applications. OPM is also reworking federal employment applications and background check forms to clarify the distinction between legitimate schools and diploma mills.

The General Accounting Office began an investigation of diploma mills last year after Laura Callahan, a senior director in the Department of Homeland Security's chief information officer's office, was placed on paid administrative leave following allegations that her degrees came from a diploma mill in Wyoming. Callahan has since left DHS. Agency officials have declined to provide details about her departure or the results of their investigation into her credentials.

Several lawmakers have joined with the Education Department to encourage more rigorous screening of the educational credentials of federal job applicants and employees seeking promotions. Education Secretary Rod Paige said in February that his agency will compile a list of accredited higher education institutions to help personnel officers weed out suspicious credentials.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chairwoman of the Senate Government Affairs Committee, announced that she will hold hearings May 11 and 12 to discuss a GAO report on the issue.

"I am pleased that Director James has taken up this challenge and that she appreciates the damage diploma mills can do to confidence in the federal workforce," Collins said. "I have invited the Office of Personnel Management to testify at the hearings and look forward to hearing more about its efforts to stop the payment for and use of diploma mill credentials."

In her memo, James thanked Collins and Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, for pushing the fight against diploma mills.

"Every federal employee must have the utmost confidence of the American people, no matter what job the employee fills," James said. "The way to maintain this confidence is by ensuring that the training and education of the federal workforce are done by accredited institutions."

COMMENTS

• The crooks are not the ones selling the degree. They are only using the old moto of supply and demand. The crooks are those in government employment who are buying them for clandestine reasons; i.e., to promote qualifications they don't have in order to extort higher salaries from the taxpayer. Send them to jail. If a military member did this, they would be court-martialed, sent to prison and given a bad-conduct discharge. Let’s have a little fairness and try those in court who purchase and use these diplomas. Charlie Posted November 26, 2006 9:12 PM
• I am an engineer with a DoD component. One of the requirements of my position is professional licensure. It requires a documented 4-year degree from an institution acceptable to the licensing board, and passing a very rigorous examination. It disturbs me very much that someone can go out to a diploma mill and buy a credential, and pass themselves off as my equal. The government needs to make an all-out effort to discover and eliminate these sources of bogus degrees. It also bothers me to see these so-called colleges grant credit for "life experiences". This is almost as bogus as the diploma mills. We've all had "life experiences", but I don't know of any life experience that can teach you calculus, or physics, or thermodynamics. GovExec.com reader Posted May 5, 2004 8:00 AM
• To the gentleman who complained about this government's lack of acceptance of non-college educated individuals: First of all, if you are aiming to demonstrate that you are just as qualified as others, I recommend that you brush up on grammar, spelling, capitalization and punctuation standards. While that may sound overly critical, those are precisely some of the skills that a college education exercises. They are the skills that allow people to communicate effectively and advance in their careers, regardless of education level. Secondly, I agree that hard work should be rewarded. It is not necessarily a person's education that sets them apart from others. It does not make them better or worse. It is a person's attitude. If a college graduate with no motivation is standing shoulder to shoulder with a high school graduate who is willing to learn and change and grow, that high school graduate is the taller individual any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I believe experience and attitude should be able to advance careers, with or without another diplomas on the wall. Regardless of this education discussion, I'd like to thank you for serving this country, both in military and civilian capacities for so many years. GovExec.com reader Posted April 30, 2004 1:21 PM