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Six Georgia Public School Teachers Resign in Diploma Mill Scandal

Six of eleven Georgia teachers who reportedly bought advanced degrees from a diploma mill in Liberia have resigned.

The six Gwinnett County middle-school teachers turned in their letters of resignation Wednesday in the middle of an investigation by the county's human resource office into the scandal.

"I was looking to see if there was any misrepresentation of their qualifications," said Gwinnett's chief human resources officer Frances Davis, "During the investigation... our teachers chose to resign. Any employee has the right to resign at any point."

The Georgia Professional Standards Commission discovered a small group of Georgia teachers were earning additional pay because of master's or doctorate degrees earned from St. Regis University. The state credentialing board ruled that their upgraded certificates were not valid and reissued their former certificates, which did not reflect the St. Regis degrees.

St. Regis is an Liberia-based online university that offers degrees which require no actual course work. Instead it grants master's degrees and doctorates based on "life experience."

F.D. Toth, the commission's executive secretary, announced that all educators found to have a degree from St. Regis will be reported to the ethics board where they may face disciplinary action. He continued that he would recommend to the commission that they review their current policy and limit the number of foreign credentialing agencies available in hopes to prevent this from happening again.

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