Byrne’s newest act helps bring credibility to diplomas

Editorial
Published: July 16, 2008

It’s time getting an education from a two-year post-secondary college in Alabama meant more than it does today. At least, that’s what Chancellor Bradley Byrne is willing to try to ensure.

Monday, Byrne announced new, stiffer regulations for institutions in hopes of improving their overall education levels and improving the state’s reputation as one that features a number of for-profit private post-secondary schools that offer worthless degrees.

Basically, these institutions in Alabama are about to be policed toward legitimacy like never before.

The new requirements, which take effect Oct. 1, are:

* Licensing will be annual rather than every two years.

* Instituting higher licensing fees to allow the Department of Postsecondary Education to hire more staff to check on the schools and their courses.

* Requiring schools to provide audited financial statements rather than unaudited statements. How unaudited financial statements were ever accepted in the first place is hideous.

* Requiring all owners and directors to have good reputations, including no convictions involving moral turpitude and no successful suits for fraud or deceptive trade practices in the last 10 years. Alabama taxpayers, who ultimately fund education, and students paying tuition, should demand clean people to run clean programs.

* Providing means to close schools that offer poor-quality courses. Such courses should not be offered to begin with, so let the schools be forewarned.

According to a report, a majority of the 258 private, for-profit schools licensed by the Department of Postsecondary Education are not accredited.

A degree in Alabama should mean something, whether it’s from a major public university, a two-year college or private institution.

It’s about time someone with pull at the top is willing to put his foot down and ensure that for-profit schools give their students a profitable education in return. That’s what they were paying for in the first place.