CHEYENNE - Wyoming's practice of licensing private, non-accredited post-secondary schools poses a threat to the state's academic reputation, top education officials say.

Three of the state's top education officials have asked lawmakers to crack down on unaccredited colleges operating in Wyoming. They say such schools should at least be accepted as a candidate for accreditation by a nationally recognized body before they're allowed to register with the state.

"We are concerned about the damage that has been down to Wyoming's education system generally," Superintendent of Public Instruction Jim McBride, interim University of Wyoming President Tom Buchanan and Jim Rose, executive director of the Wyoming Community College Commission stated in a joint letter this month. They wrote to state Sen. Tex Boggs, chairman of the Private School Licensing Task Force.

Wyoming is home to 10 unaccredited, private post-secondary institutions. They have been criticized for lax academic standards, and while some have applied for accreditation, none has received it.

According to state records, 14,530 students were enrolled in Wyoming's 10 non-accredited private schools as of this June.

"Of those 14,000, I bet there's not even 200 who are Wyoming residents," McBride said Monday. "Most of them are not even in this country, they're in Pakistan, and in different places outside the United States."

McBride said he believes the schools exist mainly to provide foreign students with a diploma that looks as though it originates in the United States.

McBride said it's his opinion that the schools want to be in the United States, "so they can convince those students, and I'm trying to be kind, that they can seek employment using that diploma. And I think a lot of those students think that they're real degrees, and they're not. And I think a lot of the students think that they're trained to be employed, and they're not. That's why we're so focused on accreditation."

The Associated Press left messages Monday with officials from Cheyenne-based Kennedy-Western and Preston universities, the two largest schools, with enrollments of 9,498 and 2,293, respectively. Neither returned a call.

In their letter to Boggs, McBride and the others suggested the Private School Licensing Task Force consider a bill that would require schools at least to be accepted as a candidate for accreditation by a body endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education before the schools could register with the state. They also said schools shouldn't need more than three years to complete the accreditation process.

Boggs' committee is working on legislation that would tighten private school standards. The task force is scheduled to meet Nov. 2 in Casper.

McBride said many other states already have strict accreditation requirements in place. He said that if Wyoming tightens its standards, the schools will likely go elsewhere.

"I'd say that because of the existence of these schools in Wyoming, we're often a laughingstock because they're not eligible to operate in other states," McBride said. "The issue is not the specific institutions; it's the general reflection. It reflects badly on education in Wyoming, and yet we're doing great things."

Boggs, who also serves as president of Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs, said Monday he's not worried that the private schools are drawing potential students and tuition dollars away from his institution and other public schools in the state.

Rather, Boggs said, "The concern that we have is the fact that students may enroll in courses in these institutions, receive credit from the institution, pay their tuition and receive credit, and then not be able to transfer that credit to an accredited institution."

"What they're doing is they're taking peoples' money," Boggs said, "and I'm not certain that the students are getting a fair return on their investment."