… and unless these same people have achieved high-level jobs in education and related fields.
Cindy Holguin, CEO of a New Mexico charter school, seems more than amply to fit the bill:
Holguin is … fighting back against allegations regarding her qualifications to lead the school as CEO.
[D]egrees held by Holguin from Belford University, … a proven diploma scam, [are] invalid and did not meet standards set by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
Holguin told the Current-Argus the only degree she used in applying for her position was an associate’s degree obtained from the Carlsbad campus of New Mexico State University in 1995.
The university was unable to find a record of that degree when requested by the Current-Argus.
In addition, Holguin said she has an MBA from New York State University Online from 2007.
Holguin said she would not cite her degrees from Belford University, saying those were not degrees she was “proud of.”
The I didn’t cite them or We didn’t use them in assessing her qualifications for the job are classic diploma mill-revelation moves… Yes, yes, she got two PhDs from East Ipswich Institute of Holistic Theology… But those are totally irrelevant to her work as superintendent of schools, so they don’t count… I got those degrees when I was a single mother subsisting on dog food and I was desperate…
But Holguin, if these reports are accurate, goes way beyond that. According to my count, she’s got at least four degrees, and it’s possible that none of them exists. I’ve never heard of New York State University Online. New Mexico State University has never heard of Cindy Holguin. And for all we know, there are several other degrees she’s not proud of and doesn’t list for certain jobs…
This is one of the most impressive diploma mill hauls UD has seen, and she’s seen a lot. She has speculated on this blog before about how this happens – how you accumulate not one or two but four or five bogus degrees. Her theory is that once you enter the twilight zone, the outer limits, of university degrees, you are in danger of being lured even deeper into the universe. Why stop at Calaspia when you can take your spaceship to Deltora and then Eternia?
March 20th, 2015 at 10:57AM
Well, she needed credentials for the job– she got the credentials and she got the job. Why is that a problem?
March 20th, 2015 at 3:12PM
Seems like a bogus diploma-mill diploma is the ideal qualification for a charter school. Charter schools are the diploma mills of K-12.
March 21st, 2015 at 4:05PM
MattF: LOL. FWIW-I’ve sometimes used a resume in which I’ve excised the selective and very selective schools I attended. Why? I needed a job. I couldn’t afford–as I saw it at the time–to intimidate an interviewer into thinking I’d be a threat to my future boss. (No, I’m not proud of doing that.)
I guess I don’t understand the sociopathy of those who lather up with faux credentials.