Senator misses a few of state's big problems
New Jersey Senate President Richard J. Codey (D-Essex) is calling for action to be taken regarding the practice of school administrators who "obtain degrees from unaccredited and questionable colleges and universities."

Codey is asking state Attorney General Anne Milgram and state Department of Education Commissioner Lucille Davy to investigate the practices surrounding tuition reimbursement for and raises made to school administrators who receive degrees from unaccredited online universities.

The senator's call for action came in the wake of news that Freehold Regional High School District Superintendent of Schools James Wasser and other administrators in the district obtained degrees from an online institution known as Breyer State University.

Questions have been raised as to the legitimacy of the institution as well as the agency that accredited the school. Breyer State's accrediting agency was not recognized by the federal government.

One published report indicated that an administrator in another school district submitted a two- or three-page paper and received a master's degree from a different online institution of this ilk.

In response to that specific report, Codey said, "How can you tell me someone who sends in their résumé and writes a two-page paper to receive a secondary degree is not knowingly gaming the system?"

Gee, Sen. Codey, where would anyone in New Jersey get the idea that "gaming the system" is appropriate?

Perhaps from our state's political system, in which Codey is a powerful player, and one that permits individuals to hold multiple elected and appointed positions that come with salaries, benefits, pensions and other perks, and to game the system for decades.

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

We do not condone anyone obtaining an educational degree through questionable means and effort and being rewarded for that possible fraud. It is wrong, and steps should be taken to prohibit it from happening again.

But we wish that Codey would also put a little effort into investigating how a lamebrain New Jersey school construction agency blew more than $8 billion and barely made a dent in building the schools it was supposed to.

You paid for that fiasco.

Or perhaps the senator could look into the way billions of dollars disappear into the state's Abbott school districts — reportedly the state's poorest districts — while suburban school districts get the shaft on state school aid year after year.

You are paying for the unfair distribution of that state school aid, too.

So thank you, Sen. Codey, for requesting an investigation that, in the case of the Freehold Regional High School administrators, amounts to peanuts, while neglecting the elephants in the room that eat up billions of taxpayer dollars with little to show for our money.

Reprinted from the News Transcript, August 27, 2008, a Greater Media newspaper.