The story behind school superintendent's dubious degree | Sonora / Tuolumne News, Sports, & Weather, Angels Camp, Twain Harte, Jamestown | Union Democrat

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The story behind school superintendent's dubious degree | Sonora / Tuolumne News, Sports, & Weather, Angels Camp, Twain Harte, Jamestown | Union Democrat: In July 1996, FBI agents raided a nondescript office building beside a church in Mandeville, La., a small town near New Orleans. The building was home to “LaSalle University” — a dubious educational institution issuing supposedly advanced academic degrees via mail for the bargain price of $2,000 to $3,700. The FBI was interested because the operator, Thomas Kirk, a self-professed religious leader, failed to pay taxes and also because schools like LaSalle were issuing degrees to government employees seeking to pad their resumes and qualify for pay raises hinged to educational advancement. The FBI’s July raid made national headlines and LaSalle was held up as the poster child for so-called diploma mills.