CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - Legislators are again looking at requiring accreditation for the 10 private postsecondary schools that are based in Wyoming and licensed by the state.

All but one of the schools - WyoTech, a Laramie technical school - operate mainly online, overseas, or both. That increases the difficulty of evaluating the schools' quality.

Some say that Wyoming could shed its reputation as a haven for so-called "diploma mills" - schools that offer degrees for little or no work - by requiring accreditation from a federally recognized agency.

Accreditation proponents include Colleen Anderson, deputy superintendent of finance and reporting for the Wyoming Department of Education.

"Our name is used to market these degrees around the world," Anderson told a subcommittee of the Joint Interim Education Committee on Wednesday. "Students who attended classes at these schools come to us when they find their education is not of the quality they expected. We are being asked to provide validation of those degrees in Kenya."

She said Wyoming's current laws don't provide adequate consumer protection.

But representatives of the schools told legislators that requiring accreditation could put them out of business.

"Does the state of Wyoming really want to be known as one who closes businesses and sends them overseas?" asked Jack Hoard, of Halifax University in Casper. "Do we really want to be seen as a state that gets pushed around by the media?"

Jerry Haenisch, chancellor of Cheyenne-based Preston University, said it would be difficult for his school, which has campuses and affiliated schools all over the world, to be accredited because organizations like the North Central Association for Colleges and Schools require inspections of each campus.

State lawmakers set aside bills that would have required accreditation both before and during last winter's legislative session.

Sen. Tex Boggs, D-Rock Springs and president of Western Wyoming Community College, said he favors accreditation either in the United States or the country where the education is provided. He said that students who attend unaccredited programs could not have their credits transferred and would not be eligible for graduate work in the United States despite having received an "American education."

"I think they're being cheated," he said.

But Sen. Kit Jennings, R-Casper, said that while domestic schools should be accredited, international universities may need to be handled differently. "Can we make an industry and employ people?" he asked.

Representatives of traditional, accredited schools, including the University of Wyoming and the state's community colleges, said they supported requiring accreditation.

"Whether you're a community college, Yale or Princeton … accreditation is the minimum bar," said Jim Rose, executive director of the Wyoming Community College Commission.