CHEYENNE - If the Wyoming Department of Education wants to remove the state's image as a haven for diploma mills, it apparently will have to take action on its own.

Earlier this month the Joint Interim Education Committee voted against introducing an accreditation bill supported by the Department of Education to require private degree-granting, post-secondary universities to become accredited in the state.

It's doubtful that any individual legislator will carry the bill, given the committee's position.

And the sponsor of a second bill dealing with standards for the private schools, Sen. Kathryn Sessions, D-Cheyenne, withdrew it in favor of working through Department of Education rules.

The bill backed by the department would have required the private schools to be accredited after July 1, 2020, in order to be licensed in Wyoming.

Currently 12 post-secondary institutions are licensed through the state. Only one, WyoTech in Laramie, is accredited, although Kennedy-Western University is working to attain accreditation.

Sessions said this week the accreditation bill would have imposed a hardship on a couple of universities licensed in the state, primarily Preston University, headquartered in Cheyenne.

Jerry Haenish, chancellor of Preston University, told the education committee during an earlier meeting in Casper that accreditation would increase costs from $10,000 up to $100,000, which would be passed on to Preston's foreign students.

Preston University, he said, now has the flexibility to offer master of business administration degrees globally to working adults in foreign countries who can't afford to come to the United States for education.

Sessions and Sen. Jim Anderson, R-Glenrock, another education committee member, went to Pakistan and Dubai last fall as members of an evaluation team for Preston University. Both are retired educators.

Preston students in those countries want the type of education the Cheyenne-based institution offers, "and they want it in English," Sessions said.

"If Preston has to put money into accreditation, then that raises their tuition above what other private universities charge to traditional students," she added.

Personally, she said, she believes there is a place for private universities for nontraditional students.

She said she suggested the private universities work with the Department of Education to come up with either stronger rules and regulations or laws, if needed.

"We have to preserve the good while we protect against the bad," she said.

Sen. Hank Coe, R-Cody, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, also said the joint committee declined to endorse the accreditation bill because of the adverse effect on private universities that do business all over the world.

Bill McIlvain of Cheyenne, who works part time for Preston University, said all the school's students are international.

"We don't fit under any accrediting association," McIlvain said. "We're not like other private universities."

Preston, he said, supported the bill proposed by Sessions.

"We think our problem is a rules problem, not a legislative problem," McIlvain said.

Private universities licensed in Wyoming:

* American Capital University, Cheyenne

* American Central University, Laramie

* American City University, Cheyenne

* American Global University, Cheyenne

* Columbia Commonwealth University, Rock Springs

* Halifax University, Casper

* Kennedy-Western University, Cheyenne

* Newport International, Laramie

* Paramount University, Cheyenne

* Preston University, Cheyenne

* Stratford International University, Evanston

* Wyoming Technical Institute, Laramie

Capital bureau reporter Joan Barron can be reached at (307) 632-1244 or at joan.barron@casperstartribune.net.