SB 104-15: Diploma Mill Ban Act (Passed)

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

AN ACT
To federally outlaw diploma mills


Be it enacted by the Senate of the Republic of Atlasia assembled

Section 1. Title

This legislation may be cited as the Diploma Mill Ban Act.

Section 2. Freedom of information for students

All individuals must have access to any and all information about the accreditation of any college, university, or institute of higher learning.

Section 3. Ban on misrepresentation of diploma authenticity or value

A person or group who is guilty of the following shall be guilty of fraud: "Any individual or group which distributes diplomas, and are not accredited or in the process of accreditation, without the student knowing that the diploma comes from a university that is not accredited or recognized as an institution of higher learning."

Sponsor: Scott

The gentleman from Wyoming is recognized.

[SevenEleven]

With how important, expensive, and time-consuming the education process is, students have every right to access this information and I fully support this bill.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Should be pretty straightforward and noncontroversial; essentially this is another "consumer's right to know" bill and ban on company misrepresentation, inspired by my experience looking into a certain online college that looked faker than all hell. Students, especially those who are young and looking into college for the first time, can easily be taken in by scam universities or universities that do not have or are not in the process of seeking accreditation.

[AGA]

While this seems like a good idea, it may be difficult to prove whether a student lacks awareness that a college lacks accreditation. I propose this rewriting of Section 3.

Section 3. Ban on misrepresentation of diploma authenticity or value

A person or group who is guilty of the following shall be guilty of fraud: "Any individual or group which distributes diplomas, and areand is not accredited or in the process of accreditation, without the student knowing that the diploma comes from a university that is not accredited or recognized as an institution of higher learning.having made a good-faith effort to inform its students that the diplomas do not come from an accredited higher learning institution."

[Senator-elect Spark]

I support this bill so far. How can we make it easier for students to understand the risks of diploma mills in the language of this bill?

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

AGA's amendment is friendly. Senators have 24 hours to object.

I support this bill so far. How can we make it easier for students to understand the risks of diploma mills in the language of this bill?

I think this bill and AGA's amendment in particular greatly lessens the chances of students getting swindled. I would also expect student counselors and advisers to help high schoolers with the vetting process.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

seems reasonable to me. People obviously should know whether something is legitimate or not.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Hearing no objection, AGA's amendment is adopted.

[Joseph Cao]

Good amendment by AGA; I think the bill looks pretty serviceable as it stands.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Not to run roughshod over any concerns expressed subsequent to introduction, speaking on the underlying matter, my experience over the past three months and the ultimate end result (which while not as ambitious as I would have hoped still amounts to progress) has led me to the conclusion that there needs to be aggressive policy to reign in the fraud, abuse, grift and outright scamming that is occurring in higher education, driving up the cost and bankrupting our economy from the bottom up.

This in turn has knock on effects towards ability to buy homes, start businesses, save and invest. It also leads to higher costs for most any professional service as they have to in turn charge more as well.

The worst offenders are by far the pro-profit private institutions and while not all of them necessarily meet the classical definition of a "diploma mill", their sheer cost and sheer worthlessness of the product offered would have to make anyone capable of independent analysis desire criminal prosecutions to ensue.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Not to run roughshod over any concerns expressed subsequent to introduction, speaking on the underlying matter, my experience over the past three months and the ultimate end result (which while not as ambitious as I would have hoped still amounts to progress) has led me to the conclusion that there needs to be aggressive policy to reign in the fraud, abuse, grift and outright scamming that is occurring in higher education, driving up the cost and bankrupting our economy from the bottom up.

This in turn has knock on effects towards ability to buy homes, start businesses, save and invest. It also leads to higher costs for most any professional service as they have to in turn charge more as well.

The worst offenders are by far the pro-profit private institutions and while not all of them necessarily meet the classical definition of a "diploma mill", their sheer cost and sheer worthlessness of the product offered would have to make anyone capable of independent analysis desire criminal prosecutions to ensue.

Are you speaking of for-profit private education institutions in general? If not, do you believe the current language needs to be strengthened? The value of any degree needs to be made very clear from the beginning, before the student commits or uses any special aid or scholarships.

[Proud Houstonian]

The Liberation Army of Atlasia declares dont move we are going to Liberate you. Anyone moving is dead.

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

The Liberation Army of Atlasia declares dont move we are going to Liberate you. Anyone moving is dead.

sir this is a wendy's located in the capitol

[Joseph Cao]

Not to run roughshod over any concerns expressed subsequent to introduction, speaking on the underlying matter, my experience over the past three months and the ultimate end result (which while not as ambitious as I would have hoped still amounts to progress) has led me to the conclusion that there needs to be aggressive policy to reign in the fraud, abuse, grift and outright scamming that is occurring in higher education, driving up the cost and bankrupting our economy from the bottom up.

This in turn has knock on effects towards ability to buy homes, start businesses, save and invest. It also leads to higher costs for most any professional service as they have to in turn charge more as well.

The worst offenders are by far the pro-profit private institutions and while not all of them necessarily meet the classical definition of a "diploma mill", their sheer cost and sheer worthlessness of the product offered would have to make anyone capable of independent analysis desire criminal prosecutions to ensue.

Are you speaking of for-profit private education institutions in general? If not, do you believe the current language needs to be strengthened? The value of any degree needs to be made very clear from the beginning, before the student commits or uses any special aid or scholarships.

I suppose all that depends on whether you can write language into the bill that specifically targets for-profit private institutions.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Not to run roughshod over any concerns expressed subsequent to introduction, speaking on the underlying matter, my experience over the past three months and the ultimate end result (which while not as ambitious as I would have hoped still amounts to progress) has led me to the conclusion that there needs to be aggressive policy to reign in the fraud, abuse, grift and outright scamming that is occurring in higher education, driving up the cost and bankrupting our economy from the bottom up.

This in turn has knock on effects towards ability to buy homes, start businesses, save and invest. It also leads to higher costs for most any professional service as they have to in turn charge more as well.

The worst offenders are by far the pro-profit private institutions and while not all of them necessarily meet the classical definition of a "diploma mill", their sheer cost and sheer worthlessness of the product offered would have to make anyone capable of independent analysis desire criminal prosecutions to ensue.

Are you speaking of for-profit private education institutions in general? If not, do you believe the current language needs to be strengthened? The value of any degree needs to be made very clear from the beginning, before the student commits or uses any special aid or scholarships.

We discussed the matter in passing back in June. I certainly think there should be accountability for all educational institutions regarding the product delivered relative to the cost, how best to accomplish that though is harder to say and might be better addressed separately. Some of these mechanisms could involve withholding portions of the money from the institution until some criteria is met (Graduation, employment in the field of study etc). That is something I had considered over the past few weeks.

The issue is certainly in the same ballpark as this in terms of "making the value of the degree clear from the beginning" but at the same time, you have the outright diploma mill where it is a question of holding them accountable relative to accreditation, which they lack. Then you have the broader category of accredited schools who over promise, under deliver and always get paid in advance under the current system and are never on the hook for the debt or the value of the degree offered. This is your bill, so if the preference is to address the former here and then do a separate bill for the latter I certainly understand, because once you get beyond accreditation/diploma mills, it gets much more complicated to enforce accountability.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Any other thoughts on the matters stated in my last post here?

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Any other thoughts on the matters stated in my last post here?

I can't exactly think of a way to enforce accountability standards for colleges. Graduation rates, at least, are pretty easy to find, but a low graduation rate doesn't necessarily mean the college is bad. Generally, colleges that are more exclusive and selective have higher graduation rates, which might say more about the students than the quality of the school.

I would prefer that problem be addressed in a separate bill, but Ashfat Bridal-esque schools like the one I almost applied to should be less of a problem as long as everyone's being transparent about accreditation.

Would it be wrong to suppose that those in charge of determining accreditation already have accountability standards?

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Any other thoughts on the matters stated in my last post here?

I can't exactly think of a way to enforce accountability standards for colleges. Graduation rates, at least, are pretty easy to find, but a low graduation rate doesn't necessarily mean the college is bad. Generally, colleges that are more exclusive and selective have higher graduation rates, which might say more about the students than the quality of the school.

I would prefer that problem be addressed in a separate bill, but Ashfat Bridal-esque schools like the one I almost applied to should be less of a problem as long as everyone's being transparent about accreditation.

Would it be wrong to suppose that those in charge of determining accreditation already have accountability standards?

Its not that there is a problem with the accreditation system for the pool of colleges that are beyond the initial category of diploma mills. It is that accreditation by definition doesn't capture the situation since that merely deals with academic standards. The degrees themselves may very well be legit in and of themselves, the problem is that you have what amounts to predatory lending being encouraged for the sake of getting such a degree, the job and wage prospects for which do not match the debt load being incurred. This encourages the system to raise tuition because it will always be paid upfront to the college via said loans and to keep encouraging the accumulation of debt to cover such ever rising tuition costs.

That said you do have accredited institutions now starting to offer more and more lower quality degrees as well to milk the above gravy train for all its worth.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

So I think the problem that Yankee raised is better addressed in subsequent legislation. I honestly don't have a solution in mind, and the students will need to research and decide which degrees are better at paying for themselves than others, given the field they want to enter.

There hasn't been any debate in over a week, so I'm opening a final vote in 24 hours barring objections.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Senators, a final vote is now open. Please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain.

AN ACT
To federally outlaw diploma mills


Be it enacted by the Senate of the Republic of Atlasia assembled

Section 1. Title

This legislation may be cited as the Diploma Mill Ban Act.

Section 2. Freedom of information for students

All individuals must have access to any and all information about the accreditation of any college, university, or institute of higher learning.

Section 3. Ban on misrepresentation of diploma authenticity or value

A person or group who is guilty of the following shall be guilty of fraud: "Any individual or group which distributes diplomas, and is not accredited or in the process of accreditation, without having made a good-faith effort to inform its students that the diplomas do not come from an accredited higher learning institution."

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Aye

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

aye

[Dr. MB]

Aye

[Senator-elect Spark]

Aye

[Left Wing]

Aye